Monthly Archives: November 2010

The Facebook for Business Rundown

The Internet Show About Small Business Marketing

Podcast Episode #69 Facebook Tools for Business


Facebook might be the most powerful online marketing tool you have at your disposal…for the short-term. A website should still be your home base and a company blog will have stronger long term returns, but you should definitely consider getting your business active online with a Facebook page.

In this episode of Power to the Small Business, Mike Whaling of 30 Lines joins host Jay Ehret as they go through a complete rundown of Facebook tools for business. Mike and Jay will cover Facebook Pages, Facebook Places, Facebook deals, and Facebook’s relationship to your website. They will wrap up a discussion with some advice on your Facebook posting strategy.

Guest: Mike Whaling – CEO at 30 Lines, Columbus, Ohio
Host: Jay EhretThe Marketing Spot, Waco, Texas

Length: 25 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: Power to the Small Business #69 (for personal use only)


iTunes

SHOW NOTES

The first step is to create a Facebook Page. Some common-sense tips in creating that page

  1. Set up your personal profile for business, but separating your personal friends in a separate friend category.
  2. Find the business pages you want to interact with, and like those pages so that you can tag them later.
  3. Do a quick search to see if your brand already has a presence through third parties.
  4. Obey the rules, don’t conduct business through your personal profile, create a business page.
  5. Don’t create your business page through a business account, do it through your personal profile.
  6. When you get to 25 likes on your page, claim your username (unique URL) by going to Facebook.com/username while logged in to Facebook.
  7. Add custom tabs to your page using FBML (Facebook’s HTML tool).

Facebook Places Page

Claim your business’ Facebook Place Page. Currently these pages must be claimed separately from your business page. The process is:

  1. Check in to your business on Facebook from a mobile device.
  2. Then log on to Facebook from your computer and search for your business, and your business’ Places page will show up.
  3. Click on the link that says, “Is this your business?” and go through the process of claiming your page.
  4. Don’t merge your business page and your Places page.

Facebook Deals

The Facebook service that allows you to make offers and discounts to your customers through your Facebook Places page. There are four different types a of deals.

  1. Individual check-ins. A deal is offered to any individual who checks in via Facebook Places.
  2. Group check-ins. Customers must check in with a certain number of people to receive the incentive.
  3. Loyalty. Customers must check in a certain number of times before they unlock the incentive.
  4. Charity. Donations are made to non-profit organizations for each check-in.

Don’t just offer discounts through Facebook Deals. Be creative and instead offer privileges or extras rather than discounts.

SELECTED QUOTES FROM MIKE WHALING

“I think Facebook is probably the best outpost out there, in terms of being able to distribute content, connect with an audience, and get a sense of where they’re at.”

“Focus on the content…Focus on ‘What am I sharing to the wall? What am I pushing out so that it shows up in people’s newsfeeds?’”

“Facebook is where you show off your personality. Think about what you want to do when you log on to Facebook. You’re there to connect to your friends and your family. You’re not there to be marketed to.”

Links:
30 Lines Facebook Page
The Marketing Spot Facebook Page

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The Decline and Fall of Marketing Discipline

The Internet Show About Small Business Marketing


Photo Credit: Phillie Casablanca

Podcast Episode #68: Marketing Professionalism and Discipline


What’s up with the current generation of marketers? It seems as if traditional marketing discipline and professionalism are being discarded in favor of a “test it today, launch it today” strategy. The current marketing trend is to treat advertising as a current event, rather than as a tool to build brand value over time.  Have all the shiny, new online marketing tools actually misguided the current and next generation of marketers?

In this episode of Power to the Small Business, three marketers join host Jay Ehret to discuss professionalism and discipline in marketing: Stephen Denny, Emmanuel Brown, Mike Wagner. They discuss where marketing has veered off course, and how it applies to your marketing strategy.

Guests:
Stephen DennyDenny Marketing, Santa Cruz, California
Emanuel Brown – Creative Technologist, Portland, Oregon
Mike WagnerWhite Rabbit Group, Des Moines, Iowa
Jay Ehret (Host)The Marketing Spot, Waco, Texas

Length: 34 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 #68 (for personal use only)

iTunes

SHOW NOTES

– Advertising is the public display of a brand’s marketing plan. Most big brand advertising is bad. Therefore, at the core, most big brand marketing plans are bad. You should not emulate big brand marketing and advertising.

– Do not test your ideas and products through social media. The only way to test your products it through live testing, when customers don’t know they’re being tested.

– Testing products and ideas is often impractical for the local entrepreneur and small business owner. Sometimes you have to go with your gut. This is why it’s important to be engaged with your customers.

– Attract the customers you can please, don’t try to please the customers you can attract.

– Avoid marketing by good idea. Instead build brand value over time.

SELECTED QUOTES FROM THE GUESTS

Stephen Denny
“There seems to be a problem separating theater from the commercial aspects of commercials.”

“…this preponderance of do-it-yourself tools is starting to make us a little bit lazy. We’ve lost the ability to do the math in our heads.”

“I wonder if…having a ready panel of people…through your Facebook presence, your Twitter stream…makes it easy enough to turn to out of convenience, but is it really giving you what you’re supposed to be getting out of it, which is projectable, quantifiable, robust, disciplined results.”

Emanuel Brown
“Does our client actually know their audience at all? Do they know the real audience? Or is it the audience of all the people that has signed up for their Facebook page?”

“We need to start thinking about this in terms of ‘What’s the end experience?’ If ‘easy’ is the way it’s going right now…what is going to be the difference to make remarkable marketing experiences for people to connect them to the brands, products and services that they’re looking for?”

“You may have a great idea and a poor execution. It may be a poor idea and a great execution, and you suck people in either way.”

Mike Wagner
“I wonder about the corporate cultures that no longer pass along the critical skills, the analytical thinking, the disciplines”

“It seems that, because it’s easy, because it’s a tool that’s a do-it-yourself tool for the most part, because there’s a sense of urgency being created by our economic climate, no one is sitting down and saying ‘how do I mentor the next generation of marketers?’”

“It’s an indication of the diminishing of true professionalism and the disciplines…I think that’s going away.”

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