The Internet Show About Small Business Marketing
Podcast Episode #66: Facebook Marketing with Thomas Umstattd
Facebook has spawned an opportunity for you to create positive conversation about your business. But only if you get in the game. Yet more than 75% of businesses are standing on the sidelines watching the Facebook game play out in front of them. Time commitments, fear of negative comments play a part in this non-participation, but the biggest culprit is know how to get started and run the first play
In this episode of Power to the Small Business, Technology consultant Thomas Umstattd joins host Jay Ehret to discuss Facebook pages for small business. He thinks that how your business looks on Facebook, may be just as important as you look on Google and the other search engines. Learn how you can get started and optimize your Facebook business page.
Guest: Thomas Umstattd – Technology Consultant, Austin
Length: 28 minutes Email subscribers and feed readers – If you don’t see the player, click here to listen to Power to the Small Business
You can also download the mp3 file here: Download Power to the Small Business #66 (for personal use only)
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SHOW NOTES
- Learn to listen first. Search Facebook for the name of your company and see what people are saying and then respond to that. Try this Facebook search engine: http://booshaka.com/
- Reach out to advocates of your business to encourage positive buzz.
- Be attractive, not pushy.
- People have to benefit for your page. Have a clear answer to the question: “What’s in it for me.”
- Pull back the curtain and let people see what happens behind the scenes at your business.
- Use your Facebook page to drive traffic to your blog. Business websites with a blog, get 50% more traffic than business websites without a blog.
- Facebook Optimization is the art of landing in top news. Pages in Top News can get 10x more traffic than pages in Most Recent
Facebook Optimization
- Get people to “like” your status update: The more likes your status updates have the more likely you are to end up in Top News. Also, when someone likes your status update, their friends are more likely to like your status update.
- Encourage comments on your status updates: The more comments you get, the more your updates attract additional comments.
- Ask Questions: It’s a great way to get comments.
Facebook Best Practices
- Pick a good name for your page: You cannot change the name of your page after you establish it.
- Pick a good photo: The image you have affects how many people will become a fan.
- Designate you page as public: let fans comment on your wall.
- Advertise on Facebook to attract fans.
SELECTED QUOTES FROM THOMAS UMSTATTD
“One of the things you have to realize about Facebook is you’re not trying to please everyone…Because the more broad you are, the more you compete with the big players. But the more that you focus, the more you can really thrill a tiny group of people.”
“We’re not selling to businesses. We’re selling to people in businesses. And once you make that adjustment in your head, being social and using social media for… B2B marketing gets easier.”
“If people are complaining about your business, you want it to happen where you can see it and take care of it right away on your Facebook page, not on Yelp, not on Google, where these ratings can last forever and really hurt your business.””
SHOW LINKS
Thomas Umstattd’s Website: www.UmstattdMedia.com
Help for writers timid about technology: Author Tech Tips