Setting up a Facebook Page is fast becoming one of the biggest knee-jerk reactions to peer pressure that small business owners will make this year. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see it submitted as a new sport for London 2012’s Olympics!
If you are out networking or reading the headlines of business related blogs, it is easy to feel that overwhelming guilt. You feel you HAVE to set up a Facebook Page just to stay in the game.
But when you do set up your Facebook Page, you wonder what all the fuss is all about. It doesn’t become the holy marketing grail that you had hoped it would be. It hasn’t made a slightest bit of difference to your bottom line.
All it has seemed to do is give you one more thing to worry about during your busy working week.
Facebook marketing can work for your business and with more than 550 million active members there is every chance that potential clients are logged in right now.
But Facebook won’t work if it is a knee jerk-reaction to peer pressure.
Here are the 7 reasons why Facebook doesn’t bring in new clients or have the cash register ringing day and night.
1. No target audience – This is THE biggest mistake that small business owners make with all marketing activities. It’s not just a Facebook mistake! If you don’t take the time to identify exactly who you want to reach out to, then you may as well stand on your local street corner and hand out leaflets to every passerby. One day, someone may be interested … but that’s an awful lot of leaflets!
2. No objectives – Again, not just a Facebook mistake. If you don’t know what you want to achieve, how will you know whether you have been successful or what actions need taking each and every week. If you haven’t taken the time to decide what results you want, don’t bother setting up a Page in the first place. It will be a waste of your time.
3. Lack of content planning – There’s nothing worse than starting the week and avoiding your Page because you haven’t got a clue what to post on your wall. Having your Page hanging around your neck will drain – both financially and emotionally.
When you start out, posting something 3 or 4 times a week is usually a good benchmark to aim at. But for some of you, that may even feel too much. Take the time to plan out topics that would interest your fans so you’ve always got a list of ideas to work from.
4. No personalisation – How personal you get does depend on your business brand. But hiding behind your corporate logo is just not going to work on Facebook. You don’t necessarily have to use a photo of you as your Page photo, but you do have to be “you” when using social media.
Sharing private stuff is not necessary either, but there will be some public private stuff that will make you human. Here’s a link to another article that should help you with all this public, public private and private stuff.
5. Chasing numbers and pleading for more fans – Numbers do make you feel good. It's great to be loved by hundreds of people. But numbers don’t always guarantee success. It’s the engagement you get with those fans that will build trust with your brand and ultimately help turn them in to paying clients.
6. It’s all about you – Even though I’ve already pointed out that you have to be “you” on Facebook, that doesn’t mean you become a business bore. Sharing stuff about your business and making special offers all the time is, well frankly, boring. You’ve got to be ask yourself “What’s in it for my fans?” Share stuff that interests your fans – trade secrets, useful resources, funny videos, latest industry developments and sneak peaks of new products.
7. Automated feeds – automating one or two things to be posted on to your Facebook wall is OK, but be careful of making all your wall posts automated. Change it up a little from time to time. Manually post a link to your latest blog article and in the comments below, ask a question. Try it. You may find you get that little bit more engagement from your fans.
When done wrong, Facebook becomes a weight around your neck. An unloved, dusty looking Facebook page can actually work against you.
But when done right, Facebook marketing can work. It can drive traffic to your website, help build your email mailing list and attract more of the right clients to your business.
Just make sure you start with identifying who it is you want to engage with, decide upon your objectives and plan you content.
"Karen Skidmore works with small business owners to show them how to build the business model, create the marketing systems and use the right web tech marketing tools to attract more of the right clients to their business. To subscribe to her free email newsletter and get access to practical advice that will move your business forward, visit www.CanDoCanBe.com"
