Web.Search.Social: The Marketing Magazine For Smart Businesses
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I was flipping through a local publication that comes free to residential households in my town. It’s got color stories interspersed by advertising for local businesses. As I flipped, I noticed that many of the businesses had Facebook icons in their ads but no actual Facebook address. And so I counted. Out of 40 ads with a Facebook icon, exactly 5 listed their actual Facebook address beside it. Only 12% of businesses in my local area thought to let people know where to find them online.
Every time Facebook sneezes, the entire Web ecosystem bursts into flames. Everyone laments the end of privacy, whines, complains, and then goes back to using Facebook. The fact is that we, as people, hate change. Facebook knows this and doesn’t care, because Facebook also knows that we, as people, adapt to change.
Once upon a time it was novel and awesome if you had a website for your business. Now, you’re an anomaly if you don’t. Say you don’t have a website and people look at you like you’ve switched into some foreign and ancient dialect they don’t understand. Then time went by and Facebook came along.
We all know that the Anthony Weiner “hack” was not a hack but just another politician pulling off the scandal du jour. But it’s worth tackling the issue of privacy and security anyway, because it’s huge. And everywhere. And never in a good way.
When my friends at Rahvalor asked me to write a guest blog for their site I began to think about the common thread between my company, Defined Logic, and Rahvalor for a topic. “How to best market your business using social networking” was an obvious answer but the question remained: strategy.
As pervasive as Facebook and Twitter are, it’s not always easy to sell a small business on the idea that social marketing is for them. Lots of business owners will admit they “need to figure out this Facebook thing” but not all are convinced that it’s important. A lot of small business owners see Facebook as a fad and Twitter as the “anti-social” social media.
I hear this statement a lot: “My customers aren’t on Facebook.” Much like the fox with the sour grapes, what people who say this really mean is that they don’t see the value in having a Facebook page for their business. They’ve probably set up a page and been stuck at 26 fans since the day they created their vanity name.
There’s an ongoing debate raging in the SEO/social media/marketing multiverse about whether it’s better to obtain a targeted, devoted following on Twitter or just a really big one. There are arguments for quality and arguments for quantity, and sometimes the same people who argue quality one minute will argue quantity the next.
As more and more people network, more and more people expect you to be networked. If your brand isn’t visible on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, if you fail to engage customers, you might become invisible and irrelevant behind competitors who are engaged.
