Well, the Facebook folks are at it again.  Just when you think you have everything figured out, the look and feel of Facebook changes. If you have a personal profile – you now just need to add a “Cover” photo –or not – to the top of your profile. Easy enough to do if you have any pictures on your system. Photos less than 500 pixels wide might appear “grainy” because FB blows them up to 851 pixels wide.

This is true as well for business pages.  But where we had advised clients to use a “Welcome Page” to encourage new visitors to “Like” the page and become a fan, that is no longer possible and the cover images cannot make reference to becoming a fan, or include arrows or other calls to action to get people to “Like” the page.

I don’t fully understand the reasoning for the shift, because the whole idea is to increase the number of fans who like your business pages so that you extend the reach of your prospects and potential prospects. But perhaps Facebook is responding to feedback from all kinds of users. That said, the people who care about it most, are FB businesses who pay some of the $4Billion in advertising to FB each year – and this number is growing rapidly.

Facebook does allow “Custom Tabs” that can encourage visitors to become fans to see “what’s behind the tab”, so you can still offer people a reason to “Like” your page, it’s just not as easy or intuitive as it once was. You will need to work much harder to build your fan base.  Which can certainly be done with advertizing. Now that I think about it,  this may be why FB doesn’t allow the Welcome Page with the call to action.

The new look of FB, loves pictures. They are now big and bold – much easier to view than the tiny thumbnails of old.

You can now “pin” posts to the top of the page for about seven days – if you’ve got a news worthy post, you can keep it from cycling down – your visitors will see it prominently displayed. Also, as your visitors come to your page, they will see a “friend activity” box that tell them which of their friends visit your page, making your page more relevant to visitors.

The Timeline format allows you to create milestones about your business that feature important events or news – these are displayed as posts, but feature larger typeface to call attention to the importance.

The Administrative pages are immediately at the top of any page for which you have admin capabilities and you can see your insights at a glance, making the status of your activity an easy thing to monitor.

Overall, I think I like the new pages. Getting used to them is not as difficult as it looks, and after March 30, they will all look the same. So like it or not, here they come!

Naturally, the answer to that is, it depends!

Both are great social media sites. If you are a dedicated networker who wants to grow your business contacts and your business is more about B2B rather than B2C, then LinkedIn might be the best place for you.

On the other hand, if most of your clients are individuals, couples or families – in other words, B2C – Business to Consumer – then Facebook might be the place for you. Facebook, is far more informal – it’s more fun, and is really a place to let people know who you are.

LinkedIn is quite a bit more professional and much less colorful and fun. But, you can build awesome relationships on LinkedIn that can open doors for you that  you might not otherwise have been able to open for yourself. LinkedIn is all about networking — you help others get where they want to go — they will return the favor when they can. Everyone is someone – so remember, even people who you may think won’t be good contacts for you can sometimes be the very best.

One thing about LinkedIn that you may not know, is they have a membership hierarchy. If you’re in the free membership, you’ll be limited on what information you can get on potential contacts. If you’re REALLY SERIOUS about growing your business relationships, you might want to consider upgrading to a more powerful membership level. For $99 a month, you can get access to a TON of influential people. Once you get the access, you’d better be able to deliver something of value.

Most of my clients are using facebook as the place people come to find out about their businesses. Facebook is great for this because you can keep your business completely separate from their personal profiles. Some businesses are using Facebook in place of their website, they still have a website, but their advertising drives people to their facebook pages first, websites second.

Facebook is also an AWESOME marketing machine which enables you to pin-point, laser-beam focus your marketing message. LinkedIn has limited advertising and it is not nearly as focused.

So if you’re interested in meeting business professionals to whom you are able to bring value, and if you love networking with other professionals, LinkedIn is the place for you to be. You will definitely grow your business through the relationships you build.

If you’re interested in getting the word out about your business and letting people see the kind of business culture you’ve built – in addition to getting leads and clients, or if you want to market with laser-beam precision  Facebook might be better for you.

Whether you decide on Facebook, or LinkedIn or both – if you’re in business, you need to be in one or the other – neither is not an option.

Some of you might know I love fund raising for non-profit organizations. One of my favorite organizations in our community is the Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center — BOEC!

They work with children and adults who are physically and sometime mentally disabled — to help them experince the outdoors through adaptive skiing, white water rafting, high ropes programs and much, much more! They help give people the confidence that comes from overcoming physical challenges. It is a very cool organization.

By donating – through the use of  this button you give back even more to the charity of your choice.  Look for them in the upcoming weeks. And be sure to Give to your favorite charity on December 6th!

Ok – so far I don’t get it. Admittedly, I’ve only belonged to Google+ for a couple of days, but all my friends are on Facebook. So they really think they can compete with 700 million people who are NOT going to switch. And as for doing any online marketing on Google+?  I just don’t see it.

Here’s what Google+ has got:

Circles – this is where you segment your friends into people you want to hear from sometimes about some things. This is where you could hear from your book club members about books, or your skiing buddies about skiing, but the book club wouldn’t hear about skiing or vice versa.  It does seem kinda cool, but frankly, I don’t have time to post once or twice a day as it is, much less to EACH of my circles – geez! It’s easy – just drag and drop your friends into the right circle.

Sparks allows you to select the topics you’re interested in and then you automatically get links to content you have said is what you want to see. A lot like Google Reader if you’ve used that before. Each topic has its own Spark page.

Hangouts are just big video chats. If you don’t have anything going on, you can hang out with your buds in video chat rooms. Parents – be aware!

Huddles allow you to message everyone in your circle. If you’re wondering where your ski circle will be meeting up, you just “huddle” to make the plan. Naturally, there’s a phone app for this (will it work on iphones or Android only?) Once you send out a message to you circle, you’re all in on the chat.

Of course they’ve got a cool interface for photos between Google+ and the Android phones and that is about it.

So far – no business pages that I can see, no advertising that I can see, and not that many people on it yet. In my mind, Google+ is just for personal social media. Which is fine — if you don’t have a business, if you don’t want to connect with your customers, if you don’t want to write relevant content.

One of the reasons I like Facebook (in spite of their constant changes that make my job more difficult) is the idea that I can have a facebook profile for my personal life and facebook pages for my business endeavors. I like having it all easily accessible and in some cases overlapping.

Google plus has a long way to go to surpass facebook, and I doubt I’ll be helping them along much!

We all know by now that Facebook is the fastest growing social media network ever – some might say Google+ will start growing even faster, but for now Facebook is the clear winner. Savvy business owners are figuring out that Facebook is the place to be for business to attract and retain customers.  Naturally, the goal of being on facebook as a business, is to get a new customer. But first you’ve got to create an atmosphere in which your fans feel comfortable buying.

Here are a few ideas to make your facebook business page sing out to your potential customers:

1. Set a strategy to build your “Likes”.  Likes are important for a couple of reasons:  First when someone “Likes” your page, their friends all see that “Like” which may drive others to see what the buzz is about increasing the traffic to your page. Second, once someone “Likes” your page, every time you post something it appears on their page. Again, not only do they see it, but their friends can see it as well.

2. Set up a Call-to-Action landing page. When new people come to your site, they should be directed to a landing page that asks them to “Like” your page. This page pops up only until that person has “Liked” your page. Once they are fans, then they don’t see that page again, and they are taken immediately to your wall.

3. Imbed video on your site. Either you can make your own videos which are so easy to do with a Flip cam or an iPhone, or you can embed videos created by someone else. Videos generate interesting content and they are easy to find on YouTube. Videos can tell a powerful story in a short time.

4.  Add “Invite Your Friends” Box. It’s a great way for your visitors to instantly choose some of their friends and invite them to take a look at your page.

5. Have a Fans Only page. You can hide some of your content to be available only to people who have liked your page. It can be used as a way to encourage visitors to “Like” your page to gain access to the “private areas”.

All of these tips are relatively easy to implement. Not tech savvy yourself? Hire someone who can help get you started! It will be well worth the cost.

About a year ago one of my associates predicted that businesses won’t be using websites in a year.

Of course, being a web designer, I thought he was really “out there” and didn’t know what he was talking about!

But I have finally come to the conclusion that he’s right. Facebook is slowly replacing websites as the place where relationships are created, business is conducted, and companies – large and small – are finding their truest customers.

Facebook is creating increased revenue for both the mega-behemoth corporations – think Under Armor – and small mom and pop shops across the globe.

Research by the folks at eMarketer indicate that businesses across the globe will be spending about $6Billion this year on Social Media Marketing – of that figure, $4Billion is predicted to be spent on Facebook Marketing.

And it makes sense why that is – there is NO OTHER MARKET in the world that is as smartly segmented as facebook. Each of us who have created a facebook profile have not only indicated what we like and what we are interested in by filling out our profiles – but we signal it every day by what pages we visit, what companies we “Like”, who we “Friend”, how we spend our time, and where we spend our money.

Facebook gathers all of that information, then helps marketers by only presenting ads to us that we might find interesting! Have you ever noticed the ads on the right side of facebook? If you haven’t, take a look and see why you might be presented with those certain ads.

I get ads that look like they are written specifically for me. I rarely get an ad that has zero interest for me. I don’t get sports ads, or car ads, or gambling ads – because that is not what I like. But I do get cosmetics ads, ads to help me lose weight, and ads that help me learn more about marketing. All of those ads are presented to me, because facebook has created and refined my profile to a finite degree.

Thus, marketers who are spending money with facebook, know their ads are not being wasted on people who don’t care about what they are selling. It is efficient, effective and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. In fact, with facebook, the more click-throughs you get, the less you pay per click. Unlike our friends at Google who have just the opposite model.

So if you are interested in getting more business, look at your facebook pages, create great landing pages to increase your fans, and learn to relate to your customers in a way that is engaging and interesting. The more you get people to engage with you, the more fans you’ll have, the more fans you’ll keep, and the more visits you’ll get.

It’s still a numbers game, but facebook enables you to increase the numbers, and increase your bottom-line.

If you’ve been around marketing for any length of time, you’ve heard of the marketing funnel. When you think of the shape of the funnel—its wide at the top, then narrows down to a fraction of it’s former self at the bottom. The idea was that you would have many prospects near the top of the funnel and as you go through the sales process, the numbers become fewer until finally a “SALE” pops out the bottom of the funnel and becomes your customer.

In those days of marketing – the sale pretty much stopped when the customer popped out the bottom of the funnel. These days, if you do that, you’re likely to never see your client again. You have to WORK to make your client loyal not only that, you want them to repeat buying and refer their friends to you.

It’s all about building relationships.

So what then? No more funnel. Think of an hour glass instead.

At the wide part of the top of the hour glass you start with the 1st of seven phases.

1. Know – People get to know you through your ads, articles, referred leads, etc.

2. Like – They start to like your website, your facebook pages, your newsletter, your reception, etc.

3. Trust – They begin to trust your content, your social media participation, white papers, sales presentations, etc.

We’re nearing the thin part of the hour glass now because not everyone is going to go through all the phases with you.

4. Try – They decide to try something of yours, a seminar, a webinar, a free how-to guide, a class etc.

5. Buy – YEA! You’ve got a new customer, make sure your delivery is impeccable, your orientation process is attentive and your ‘after sale’ full of appreciation!

Make them feel like the valued customer they are – because as Geoffrey Gitomer says – “Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless!”

6. Repeat – Post customer surveys, cross sell opportunities, quarterly events, customer appreciation discounts, etc.

7. Refer – Your current customers will refer others to you – clients and partners alike, this is where your business gets built.

Now think of the bottom half of the hour glass and it is filled with customers who continue to buy from you and help you grow your business!

I talk to small business owners almost every day – mostly about marketing because that’s what I’m passionate about. Especially online marketing where you can get such a big bang for your buck.

It probably will not surprise you to hear that many of my peers tell me they “can’t afford” marketing, that it is too much of an expense!

Well, it got me to thinking – is it really an expense, or is it an investment?

Webster has this distinction to make between the two:  An expense is the charge incurred by the cost of doing business. While an investment  is to put money to use in something offering profitable returns.

Expenses are things like rent, stationary, utilities – you pay the money out for things that are expended – used up.

Whereas with an investment, you pay money out and over time, you expect to get a return on that investment. So you inherently expect to get more back than you paid out.

Viola! That is where marketing comes into play. With a well executed marketing strategy – be it online, offline, social media, direct mail… or whatever…. you should expect to get MORE revenue than you would have received had you not spent the money on marketing!

Notice here, I said, “a well executed marketing strategy.” A good marketing strategy will start out slow with the ability to track results. “Split tests” might be required to determine if radio increases customer awareness better than print media. You might want to test out a red banner against a blue banner on your website – definitely blue is better.

You might want to know for example that people are more likely to buy things that are priced to end in a seven rather than a zero or five. So if you’ve got a special promotion, use $49.97 rather than $49.95 – honestly. People do research on this stuff so you don’t have to.

The point is this. If you can’t afford marketing, then it is because you have not invested in enough marketing in the past. Good marketing, will drive traffic – either to your store, or your website. No marketing drives no traffic.

You decide. Are marketing dollars an expense – or an investment? If you want your business to grow, think investment!

Recently I’ve become aware of a stunning Facebook Marketing Success and I wanted to share it with you.  It started with a small Mom and Pop retail store in Westport, Connecticut (population 25,000) selling high end women’s resort wear! They employed anywhere from 2 to 5 employees depending on the season.

They were satisfyingly successful in their local market and had plans to open other stores. Suddenly, however, the manufacturer of their clothing line decided they would sell their clothing direct to consumers.

What that meant, is that people no longer needed to come into the store to buy, they could now go direct to the manufacturer and even get a slight price break.

The Mom and Pop shop scrapped that idea of opening other stores and focused their efforts on increasing market share. They had had a website and had been selling their clothing online since 2005 with good results. They hired a marketing consultant to help them develop a comprehensive social media marketing strategy.

The plan they put in place focused largely on Facebook marketing. They built a Facebook presence in July 2009 and by 2010 they had blown the doors off all previous records. In 2009, revenue from Facebook was up from $4900 to $95,000. Their fans had increased from 3196 to 11,453 and the value of a fan went from $1.52 to $8.27.

How did they accomplish that? Together with their marketing consultant, they developed the following goals:

• Increase revenue with little money, effort & time
• Increase email list and Fans
• Increase awareness
• Increase customer base
• Increase customer loyalty

Once they had their goals in mind, they used the following strategies:

Wall Posts

• Post to FB every 1 or 2 days
• Increase interaction & engagement with Fans which increases FB Home Feed Visibility
• Post pictures and videos (Stands out)
• Increase interaction by asking questions
• Reply quickly to customer service questions
• Give a sense of personality NOT just pushing sale

Tabs

• Main Tab is Wall = shows latest promos, personality of business, social proof (Fan counts and Fan comments
• Email capture Tab “Specials”
• Shop Tab – a complete E-commerce site enabling people to make purchases straight from Facebook
• Info Tab – very basic contact info & links to websites
• Twitter Tab – mostly FB posts pushed to Twitter, allows people to follow
• Custom landing Tabs for promotions only – coupons are an option – but buggy with FB

Promotions

• Weekly email are automatically posted to Facebook Wall
• Monthly Facebook only promotions % Contests
• Discounts for Fans only
• Customer Tab for Non-Fans to become fans
• Run Ads to get awareness of FB-only promos
• Send email to list with link to custom FB Promo Tab to get list to become
• Fans

Paid Ads ( Always FB to page never off FB)

• Look at FB Insights (analytics) to learn about your Fans
• Segment Ads according of FB Insights
• Age
• Gender
• Location
• FB Connections (Current Fans, Friends of Fans, Not fans)
• Likes & Interests (Music, TV, Movies, Brands, etc.)

They found that having their friends “Like” them brought more SEO power than they realized – the more Likes, the higher the page rank.

Because they didn’t hire additional employees to help with this effort, they were the ones who kept the pages updated. Their consultant recommended ideas and helped them with technical aspects, but they mostly just fit this work into their schedules.

It is an amazing story! Think about what a good Facebook Marketing strategy could do for your business. For a complete list of services I provide for small businesses head on over to Services!