Yes I know that sounds a bit rude, but give me a chance, I have a good reason for my antisocial behaviour. Recently I’ve been getting lots of requests from businesses in my immediate community to become friends on Facebook. While it is the norm for a small community with businesses seeking to reach their immediate audience, I’m not a fan of Friending people strictly for business purposes. Just like bad networkers do offline, after a while a potential online contact or customer gets disgusted with incessant pitches. And that is really bad for any business.
Go ahead, click on it!
I get it, everybody’s on Facebook and yes I do agree, unless your last name is Flinstone, if you are serious about your business, you should be utilising social media and you should have a Facebook presence. But becoming my friend isn’t the most reasonable thing for businesses to do. Now if I become a fan of your organisation’s Facebook Page – then you really are in social media business. While my one Like doesn’t shake the world, for any organisation having a Facebook business presence helps you to encourage a culture around your business or cause via your Fan Page. Your Fans no longer see your product as a thing, it becomes a part of their everyday lifestyle.
The main reason I do not like businesses asking me to be their friends is the issue of privacy. While sometimes I’m glad to hear about discounts or new products, when a business has an ordinary Facebook Profile and we do become friends, if my privacy settings aren’t in tip top order, you have access to all my holiday photos and the cutesy stuff my parents, siblings and Mr C says about me! That’s why I am more inclined to say no to a friend request or put a business on a Facebook list that gets minimal interaction. So you might have 4000 friends as a business, but no one is really talking to you, and after a while, your discount information no longer shows up in News Feed – wasted effort on your part.
Businesses should also consider their own privacy as well. I once had a consultation with a gentleman new to the hospitality industry. I’m no hospitality guru but I did know about developing a brand and getting people to the establishment to keep the doors open while he figured out the businesses. Much to my surprise, days later I saw his personal account changed to the name of his business. His family photos, personal messages via his status from family and friends and quite a lot of chit chat that had nothing to do with his establishment became the organisation’s public image. While he was eager to jump on board, Profile pages are designed for that friendly interaction between people. If you are an entrepreneur or even a large organisation, presenting a public image while at the same time protecting the details of your life once you’re off the clock should be a priority.
Fan Pages allow you the opposite opportunity of privacy, visibility. While your Facebook Profile might only be accessible to your friends and persons in your network, a Fan Page is searchable by the almighty Google; SEO optimised, just in case your website isn’t up with the times. So if you are that guy that’s running a great bar, someone searching for things to do while on vacation in the BVI stands a great chance on stumbling on your bar’s Fan Page. Anyone, in your network or not, will have access to the page and the option to Like your business or organisation; an almost infinite possibility to reach out to potential customers.
Unlike Profiles and Groups, Fan Pages are unlimited. Meaning all 70 billion persons using Facebook can, if your product is just that great, Like you. I’ve been a victim of this and I’ve also been a perpetrator. You’ve got a good list of regulars you interact with then you decide to switch things up to a more professional image and launch a Facebook Fan Page. The challenge then becomes carrying those persons over to Like your page. There is no systematic way of doing this, you simply have to ask nicely for persons to go the extra two steps, go to your Fan Page and Like you. I know that sounds elementary, but you would be surprised at how many people don’t take those steps and how many persons in your audience you can lose. If you are thinking about setting up a business or implementing social media tools in your work, do it the right way one time and set up a Fan Page.
Is is working, are you reaching people who like you and your product? Facebook has built in tracking that gives you updates allowing you to clearly see if a campaign or product you’ve launched is making any traction. With other anyaltical tools you should be using to optimise your website it becomes easy to see where you are creating buzz and even what products the buzz is all about.
I might be putting myself out of business here, but it’s also the thing about social media that excites me. Fan Pages allows you to have an online billboard that not only sings praises about your business but presents an opportunity for your audience to talk about it to you! Calculate the cost of that in offline and more traditional campaigns. Chances are the mom and pop that has an awesome product, can’t really afford a billboard in every country possible, with anytime focus groups of potential customers giving you almost instant feedback. Unlike some social media managers, I say it is almost free. Calculate the minute amount of time you spend setting up your business’ Fan Page and updating it regularly and I’m quite sure your hourly rate is less than mine.
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