Facebook for Business

Facebook is the hottest thing going in social media right now. Still, there are a lot of skeptics in b2b and b2c who don’t see how Facebook can advance their business objectives. The objections I hear most often:

• Facebook is fine for big consumer brands with an established following, but we’re not in that category.
• Facebook is recreational – people don’t go there to do business.
• Facebook is fad. Next year you’ll be telling me to drop everything and rush to some other social media platform

Why Facebook Belongs in Your Social Media Mix

Big current opportunity. I have no answer to the third objection – it’s possible that Facebook could be yesterday’s news tomorrow, but it’s the nature of social media that we must keep one eye on today and the other on tomorrow. Things change rapidly in social media. So yes, it’s risky to put all your social media eggs in one basket. But on the other hand, if you wait for social media to stabilize, you will have a long wait and miss spectacular opportunities to generate business in the meantime. Today, Facebook has upwards of 500 million users and more than 150 mobile users. What business can afford to overlook a market of that size? – especially one that can be so effectively segmented.

Spectacular advertising opportunity. Like George Halas and nickels, I throw around overblown adjectives like manhole covers. When I say spectacular, I mean it. Facebook ads can be precisely targeted and are far more relevant to users than what can be achieved in other PPC models. Most Facebook users I talk to say they don’t mind the ads and many actually like them.

You don’t have to do business to get business. It’s true that Facebook is by and large a recreational social media channel – at least for the moment. As brands stampede to Facebook, that may change, but let’s consider the dynamics as they stand. For about a year, my main activity on Facebook was playing Farmville – a non-business endeavor if ever there was one. But, while playing the game, I was exposed to many ads I took action on (they were relevant to my business and personal interests). While playing the game, I checked out Fan pages my friends talked about in my News Feed. Not only did I frequently become a Fan of those brands, I spread the word to my friends. From what I can tell, my behavior is typical. Bottom line: Business and pleasure mix on Facebook. Brand exposure and conversion opportunities can spread through Facebook networks quickly and in high volume.

Branded search opportunities. If a customer or prospect googles your business name, your Facebook page – if you have one – will likely move very high in the rankings. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if those customers and prospects who like Facebook became fans and started talking up your brand?

Facebook is not always a volume game. Customers want to interact with brands they use – and that goes for small local brands as well as global giants. If you’re a local, regional or highly specialized business, you don’t need 10,000 fans to succeed on Facebook.You just need the right fans.

Facebook boosts morale and personalizes your business. Often, a company’s Facebook strategy focuses on employees instead of or in addition to customers. This is a sound approach. Facebook serves as an effective communication hub for employee activities and goings-on, and if done properly makes a powerful impression on customer fans. Facebook gives customers and prospects a look behind the curtain, a way to get a flavor of the spirit that moves the organization. Today that’s what matters. And again, it matters whether you’re a global brand or the corner drugstore.

Not convinced? What’s holding you back? Contact me to talk about your social media marketing ideas.

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P.S. – Hat tip to Straight North designer Chris Depa for a rocking site design.
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More simplified marketing. The following outline is something I prepared recently for a mid sized b2b client that wants to take a completely fresh look at their digital marketing program. Does your firm follow anything that looks like this? If not – would it help if you did?

Look before You Leap into Marketing

1. Branding – What do you stand for?
2. Targeting – Who are you trying to reach?
3. Messaging – What are you trying to communicate?
4. Conversion – What do you want customers and prospects to do?
5. Analytics – How do you define and measure progress and success?

Key Challenges

1. Branding – Do customers get a clear and consistent picture of your business?
2. Targeting – Have you identified your target markets precisely?
3. Messaging – Are you speaking in language your market understands and responds to?
4. Conversion – Are you giving customers and prospects multiple ways to interact with you online?
5. Analytics – Are you capturing the right data … and analyzing it?

Process

1. Identifying strategic goals is the first step to crafting an ROI-driven marketing plan
2. Determine an overall annual budget, evaluate all interactive options at your disposal:
   1. Web design, redesign
   2. Search engine optimization (SEO)
   3. Paid search – PPC and retargeting
   4. Conversion optimization
   5. Social media
   6. Email marketing
   7. Analytics
3. Determine best options and allocate budgets for each option
4. Formulate tactical plan for each option
5. Launch program
6. Evaluate results and make adjustments quarterly

Common Marketing Miscues in Mid Sized Companies

1. Failure to craft a strategic plan
2. Failure to adequately fund marketing activities
3. Failure to set up conversion opportunities
4. Failure to give programs adequate time to succeed
5. Launching programs without adequate preparation
6. Setting up too many programs and doing none of them justice
7. Failure to define and/or measure results
8. Doing information dumps rather than addressing customer needs
9. Relying on poorly designed and written websites
10. Failure to validate gut decisions with analytics
11. Failure to moderate analytics-driven decisions with gut feel
12. Failure to research customer behavior and preferences, competitors, and new market opportunities before creating a marketing plan

Avoid the Design Dump

C.J. got me thinking about a connection between content and design I had never considered. On the content side, we often run into the problem of saying too much – of doing an “information dump” where we throw every company and product benefit into every page of Web content. This ends up confusing, frustrating or boring the visitor, and can’t help but reduce conversions.

On the design side, it occurs to me websites easily fall into the same trap: too many design elements, too much going on, too many colors, too many fonts, too much animation. Again, the bottom line is a confused, frustrated, or bored visitor.

Here’s what the new CookTek® site looks like. I’ll point out some things below the image.

Induction Cooking with the Cook in Mind

(Click on the image to go to this Web page.)

As someone who looks at tons of websites every day, I appreciate the simplicity of the design. How does it strike you?

• Minimal, unobtrusive text
• Unmistakable call to action
• jQuery animation with useful information and images
• Navigation menus, including drop-downs, are big, making mouse manoeuvers easy
• Good amount of white space

Still tweaking left to be done, but I think this is a style of website we should see more often. I don’t know too much about the restaurant business, but I do know people who work in restaurants and hospitality are busy. Web design (and content) should make it easy for them to find what they need online and get back to work.

Over to You
What are your thoughts? Do you have examples of user-friendly websites to share?

A while ago I wrote a post asking, What’s Wrong with This Sales Call?

SALES REP: … and that’s how our product can save you money and streamline your operation. It should save you $10,000 a month.

PURCHASING AGENT: Wow! That’s fantastic. I’ve never seen anything like this. It could completely transform our business.

SALES REP: Good enough! Thanks for your time. (Leaves office)

PURCHASING AGENT: (Calling out through the doorway.) Hey – do you have a business card?

Fred Schlegel observed the sales rep was talking to the wrong person.

Robin Dickinson noticed a number of problems. The sales rep didn’t flesh out the benefits. He didn’t outline any next steps. He didn’s show any empathy.

Andrew Heaton saw all this and more. In particular Andrew lambasted the rep for being fuzzy on the details, rude, and pretty much oblivious to all the fundamentals of sales.

Karen Swim observed several things, most significantly that the rep did nothing to move the sales process along.

No sales manager in his or her right mind would employ a sales rep like this. No sales rep could survive more than a few weeks handling sales opportunities in this manner. And yet, businesses all over the world tolerate this sort of sales performance day in and day out, year in and year out, and squander opportunities as big as this one – and bigger – that they never know they lost.

Think of Your Website as a Sales Rep

The situation I’m referring to, if it’s not obvious by now, is the website that fails convert visitors into customers. More precisely, I’m talking about websites that fail to try to convert visitors into customers. Look around the Web – you will see b2b and b2c websites by the score that fall into this category.

Does Your Website Pass the “So What?” Test?

So what?

Does your website have brilliantly crafted content that lays out your products and services with the eloquence of Cicero? If it does, so what?

Design and content in and of themselves don’t convert. Visitors don’t come to a website hoping to be dazzled. Visitors come to your website to:

1. Quickly figure out what you offer
2. Quickly figure out if you can help them
3. Quickly figure out how to contact you

Unfortunately, too many business sites perform like the rep in our little drama. The customer sees value, the customer wants to buy, but the sales rep is making it exceedingly difficult for the customer to take the next step.

Exaggerated or not, this drama should give any business leader pause: How many sales is my website turning away? How many prospects am I handing over to the competition?

A website with poor conversion characteristics is like a sales rep who forgets to leave his business card. It’s like a sales rep who runs off to the next call before trying to close the one he’s on.

If you ask any company why they have a website, they’ll say, to generate leads. If you ask what the company is doing to convert visitors into leads – you’re likely to get a blank stare. Sound crazy? It is, but I’ve seen it a thousand times.

But that’s not the worst of it. You would think a company with a sales rep like the one in our drama would fire him on the spot. You would think that a company with a website that wasn’t converting would fire that website on the spot and build a new one.

But in the real world, what happens is this: the bungling website gets a promotion! The company invests big numbers in SEO and PPC to drive even more visitors to the website, so even more people can say, “So what?”

10 Telltale Signs Your Website Needs a Conversion Stratetgy

AHA!

1. No toll free phone number
2. No easy to find toll free number
3. No email options
4. No customized landing pages for PPC campaigns
5. A contact form that’s too complicated
6. A contact for that’s overly simplistic, that doesn’t guide the inquirer
7. No signup opportunities – subscribe to our blog, subscribe to our newsletter, etc.
8. No calls to action – e.g., “Contact us now for more information on xyz.”
9. Proportionately low pageviews of your Contact page
10. High bounce rate on your Contact page

If your website needs sales management in the form of conversion optimization, Straight North can definitely help. There’s just no reason to settle for a website that dashes out of the room when the prospect starts throwing out buying signals.

Keeping It Simple

Social media are communication platforms used for creating, distributing, and exchanging information.

For example, business people routinely use Twitter for all three purposes.

1. They create original content to inform, amuse, or enlighten
2. They distribute content by tweeting and retweeting links to valuable information
3. They exchange content by engaging in one-to-one or group tweet exchanges

Create, distribute, exchange: these are the three dimensions of social media content.

Depending on the strategy, one content dimension may be relatively more important. For instance -

• When the goal is thought leadership, creating content is primary
• When the goal is driving website traffic, distributing content is primary
• When the goal is community building, exchanging content is primary

Why is this important? Because knowing where your content emphasis is helps determine what social media platforms to use.

• A blog is great for creating content
• Twitter is great for distributing content
• Facebook is great for exchanging content

Generally speaking – and there are always exceptions – a thought leadership strategy without a blog is hard to pull off. Any traffic generation strategy should give Twitter strong consideration. And for community building – don’t overlook Facebook.

The keys to avoiding confusion about social marketing:

• Don’t get caught up in the bells and whistles of the various social media platforms
• Don’t be intimidated by the complexity and volume of communication

Instead, figure out what your business purpose is. When you have strategic clarity, choosing the right social media tools isn’t really that difficult.

What’s Wrong with This Sales Call?

Scene – Purchasing agent’s office. A sales call is just winding down.

SALES REP: … and that’s how our product can save you money and streamline your operation. It should save you $10,000 a month.

PURCHASING AGENT: Wow! That’s fantastic. I’ve never seen anything like this. It could completely transform our business.

SALES REP: Good enough! Thanks for your time. (Leaves office)

PURCHASING AGENT: (Calling out through the doorway.) Hey – do you have a business card?

Your company’s Twitter background is an important part of your branding and marketing efforts. A Twitter profile page and home page can attract a great number of views, in particular from existing customers and potential customers. A well branded, eye popping custom designed Twitter background is a must, but the content is important as well. Here are the key elements.

1. Tagline. Unless your brand is a household word, make sure visitors to your Twitter pages can grasp the essence of your business in a matter of seconds. Twitter is a fast medium, even for the Internet.
2. Phone Number. If prospects sees something they want on your Twitter page, and they want it now, make it easy for them. People still use the phone for business inquiries, and P.S. – we love toll free numbers.
3. E-mail. Another “old fashioned” contact medium that remains incredibly popular.
4. Contact Us Page URL. Don’t force inquirers to navigate from your home page to make contact. Ideally, you will have a well put together contact page, if not a Twitter landing page created specifically for the purpose.
5. Home Page URL. Obviously.
6. Description of Services. This is a maybe. If your products and services are obvious from your company name and/or tagline, consider skipping the detail in favor of a clean design. On the other hand, if visitors can’t figure out what you do, you’d better include a brief explanation … or rebrand.
7. Sales Message. This is tricky. Some eschew sales messages, thinking social media is (or should be) a hype-free zone. I’m not sure about this. A certain number of people – who knows how many – go to Twitter to find products and services. These people want to be sold. When we’re working with a client on their Twitter strategy, we look at related industries and the competition and the conversations to get a feel for how the sales message is presented and received. If a sales message is included in the Twitter background, it’s always a good idea to keep it short.
8. Privacy Warning. Depending on the business you’re in, this content element can be extremely important. Financial institutions and law firms, for example, should remind visitors that if you say it on Twitter, the world can hear.
9. Locations. If cultivating business in a particular geography is crucial, showing locations makes sense. If you sell worldwide or nationally, making mention of it enhances credibility.
10. Other Social Networks. Displaying Facebook, YouTube, etc. badges promotes your status as a serious social media participant, enhancing credibility. This works fine as long as you actually have a strong presence on those other platforms.
11. How We Use Twitter. Because visitor expectations run the gamut, letting people know how you use Twitter is vital. Is your Twitter presence geared for conversation? Are you focused on customer service, product updates, company news …? Visitors will be more apt to follow you and care about what you’re saying if they know what to expect.
12. Call to Action. Call now for a free demonstration. Book your reservation today. Learn how our service can reduce your operating costs. It can’t hurt to include a call to action unless you’re really trying to avoid any suggestion of selling something. Another consideration: unless you’re willing to redesign your Twitter background template frequently, use a call to action you can stick with for a while.
13. People. Social media is personal. I almost always recommend putting a human face on Twitter backgrounds. For some organizations, privacy issues are a deterrent, and I would never force the issue if the firm and the individual(s) are uncomfortable.

What have I missed? What other content should you or could you add to your Twitter background?

Remember, too, that there’s much to be said for a clean design. Cluttering Twitter backgrounds with scads of content – even highly relevant content – can backfire. If the Twitter background looks like a maze or overwhelms visitors, chances are they will lose interest. Let common sense be your guide.

In Part 1, we discussed the first five valuable incentives for businesses to use LinkedIn. Even if these five were the only benefits the site had to offer, LinkedIn would still be valuable to your company. Fortunately, however, the site offers other benefits, as well. The second five benefits of using LinkedIn follow:

6. Build business referrals.

LinkedIn is the go-to place to get online referrals. Not only will people with whom you’ve done business in the past be able to recommend you right on the LinkedIn site, but you’ll also be able to garner referred traffic from other websites along with organic search engine traffic, which can lead to new business connections and further referrals. As you consistently expand your LinkedIn network by remaining active on the site, you should find your business on the receiving end of a growing number of business referrals.

7. Increase traffic by linking to your site from your LinkedIn page.

LinkedIn can help you vastly improve traffic to your website by allowing you to place a link to your site on your profile or company page. Since LinkedIn is a high-visibility site, this can only benefit your business or professional brand. Because LinkedIn’s outbound links are no-follow, however, they will unfortunately not pass on page rank to your site. Nevertheless, their traffic value will more than make up for this PR lack.

8. Attract quality people.

Other LinkedIn members who are seeking employment will be able to locate your company when doing job searches, which can help you attract qualified job prospects to fill your vacant positions. Through your LinkedIn company page and/or profile, you’ll be able to advertise your company’s existence, philosophy, methods, accomplishments, and objectives. Through creating LinkedIn Groups, you’ll also be able to gather a following around a particular aspect of your business and, if desired, use this group to announce open positions within your firm. If interested, you may also post your job openings right on LinkedIn for a fee.

If you are an individual entrepreneur or freelancer, you’ll also be able to forge connections that can prove valuable in finding other qualified professionals with whom to collaborate or to whom you may sub-contract projects when needed.

9. Research companies and/or business opportunities.

LinkedIn makes it easy to do extensive, business-related research all in one place. You’ll have no trouble finding information about companies you may be considering dealing with, and through LinkedIn networking you may even learn of business opportunities of which you may have been previously unaware. You’ll also be able to research the competition and learn a great deal that can help you improve your own business methods and help you stay on the leading edge of your market.

10. Build mutually beneficial relationships through LinkedIn Answers.

LinkedIn Answers http://www.linkedin.com/answers is a helpful resource you can use to get answers to your own business-related questions while at the same time responding to others’ questions based on your own areas of expertise. This can help forge mutually beneficial business relationships by creating a dynamic give and take between business peers who can help one another meet desired business goals. Connections made through LinkedIn Answers can also potentially blossom into joint business ventures in the future, making them that much more valuable to your business. Never underestimate the possible reach of a simple gesture such as answering a fellow professional’s business-related question. It could eventually provide a tangible benefit to your company’s bottom line.

Link Up with Valuable Resources on LinkedIn

The ultimate value of LinkedIn may take years to accurately measure and assess. Yet, there’s little doubt that such value exists, and today’s businesses can begin taking advantage of it absolutely free. For those who choose to take LinkedIn’s services to the next level, paid LinkedIn advertising may offer even greater benefits. But, the best part is that the service itself is free, meaning those who don’t choose to advertise can continue to reap the benefits that accrue from simply joining and/or starting a company page on the most popular professional network on the Internet.

Can you think of other benefits of LinkedIn that I may have left out? In what specific ways do you use LinkedIn to build your professional brand?

Karen Swim

1. TopRank Online Marketing. Lee Odden and company have been around for a long while and understand the intricacies of social media marketing within large organizations. The TopRank blog features insightful analysis backed with research, and helpful case studies. Plenty of b2b focus as well.
2. Web Ink Now. David Meerman Scott is always one or two steps ahead of the crowd. Read his blog to find out what will be important in social media tomorrow. His case studies are awesome and so is his writing style.
3. Jeff Bullas. Jeff loves lists. He gives you useful stuff like the Top 20 Threats to Social Media Marketing and The 22 Secrets of Power Bloggers. It must take Jeff a lot of time to assemble these posts, which makes me admire his steady output all the more.
4. CK’s B2B Blog.CK is all b2b, all the time. As someone who concentrates on b2b myself, I really appreciate her relentless focus. Another thing I like about CK is her deft use of multimedia to get her point across.
5. Robin Dickinson. Robin is an interesting case. He’s fairly new at blogging, but he’s already developed highly effective techniques for stimulating high powered business conversations. Robin not only provides great insight, his blog is in itself a social media case study. He’s also an extremely nice guy who’s guest authored on my blog and spent time on the phone with me kicking around social media ideas.
6. Karen Swim. Karen’s blog is chicken soup for the blogger’s soul. If you’re struggling in the trenches of social media execution and need a lift, Karen will give it to you. She also knows the technical side of social media cold, and throws ideas out from time to time that completely reshape your strategic thinking.

Over to You
What are your favorite social media blogs? Where do you find ideas and inspiration?