Something weird, wonderfully weird, on Small Business Saturday

When you get off the plane in Austin, you sense immediately that something is different.  There's a different vibe, a beautiful array of colors, and unique products displayed in creative ways.  The folks here advocate "Keep Austin Weird" with signs, posters, and t-shirts.

At the baggage claim, there are a set of over-sized guitars that are decorated using different themes.  As the photo shows, one of these guitars is inspired by the theme "Keep Austin Weird."  When you look closely, you see that many of the small images on the over-sized guitar promote small businesses.  Indeed, the guitar screams, SUPPORT SMALL BUSINESS.  And we couldn't agree more.  You've heard it all before -- small businesses are the back-bone of the American economy, small businesses are the engine that create jobs -- but we like Austin's approach.  Perhaps we should support small businesses because that's where real creativity and innovation lives.  Yes, let's keep Austin weird on Small Business Saturday.

Facebook for small business: Do you “like” it?

By Monica W. Wamsley

Facebook has altered the vocabulary of social-network users and non-users alike: All of a sudden, “like” is a click of a mouse, and Oxford Dictionary declares “unfriend” the word of the year.

As of October 2012, Facebook boasts one billion monthly active users. A large audience, which willingly displays demographic information and interests, could not be easier to find.

And a plus for small businesses: Sucharita Mulpuru, a retail analyst at Forrester, says they seem to have more success on Facebook than big stores do.

Getting started

The New York Times channels Ideen with its clear introduction: Make a short list of goals before jumping in to Facebook. Take your time to plan.

Go ahead and “like” Facebook Marketing while you’re at it. That gives you access to a bunch of tips to advertising on Facebook and FB-authored white papers, including “Facebook’s Steps to Business Success” (a great one-pager to print and keep by your laptop), “Building essential connections: Engaging your audience by publishing to your page,” and “Facebook Offers.”

From Facebook itself, a memorable Web address is key. Constant Contact reminds us that your Facebook page extension is customizable once you hit 25 “likes”; NYT suggests asking your friends and family to like your page so that it has a good crowd before its debut.

Flyte New Media points out that Facebook pages are publicly available to search engines for finding and indexing — bonus traffic for your page.

The ever-awesome Mashable recommends a quick trip to Name Vine. Name Vine instantly checks domain names, Twitter handles, and Facebook and Pinterest extensions.

By the way, heads-up that you don’t own your Facebook page; Facebook does. Because of this, the layout can change at any time. Be aware, and be adaptable.

Once you get past the ownership and the all-Facebook-pages-look-the-same stumbling block, begin with your cover photo: It is the first thing a visitor sees. At 851 x 315 pixels, it is much larger than your 180 x 180 pixel profile photo.

First things first, though: Resist the urge to do a Google image search for a stunning picture. It could land you in legal trouble because of rights and permissions, AllFacebook reminds us. AllFacebook recommends TimelineImages.com for purchasing quality cover photos that are safe.

Check out examples of great cover photos over at Social Media Examiner’s 2012“Top 10 Small Business Facebook Pages,” especially Chocolate ForBreakfast. Chocolate For Breakfast is up 3,000 likes since the post from two months ago.

Notice that the cover photos relate to both the product (or service) and the customer. They are not trying to make a sale; they are trying to connect.

Additionally, your profile picture will be seen when you are represented in places other than your own page. Constant Contact is right on in asserting the main image for most companies is a logo. Choose something that represents you in a professional manner.

This author wants to suggest a brief stop at Hershey’s Kisses for profile photo and cover photo use, but she does not want to suggest that chocolate fares best.

The last elephant in the room as to getting started on Facebook is your advertising budget. It is no secret that the social-media budget of a small business is dwarfed by that of larger companies.

However, even $50 per month can help a small business make waves on Facebook, according to Mashable. You can control how much you spend by setting daily and lifetime budgets. The price of advertising is among Facebook’s most appealing features for small businesses.

Etiquette

This part of Facebook is wildly uncomplicated.

Use a conversational tone, and don’t hawk your wares constantly. According to studies picked apart by AllFacebook, “[o]vertly business-oriented posts consistently performed poorly. Facebook users expect to interact with friends; brands that don’t act like friends will be defriended.”

Be succinct: Facebook is not a blog. Feel free to post links to blog entries, but save the lengthy content for another medium.

Respond to posts from fans and other businesses! “You end up moving away from being an Internet marketer and go into almost customer service,” Jim Glaub,creative director at Art Meets Commerce, told NYT.

Engagement

Right off the bat, Facebook itself suggests adding at least one post per week. Facebook reports that most of its users’ time is spent on their individual news feeds — 40 percent of their time, in fact. Constant Contact recommends a few posts each week, varying the types of posts. Stay relevant by adding content.

According to Facebook, a photo album garners 180 percent more engagement; a photo, 120 percent more; and a video, 100 percent more. Those items get likes, comments, and shares. You can find more of Facebook’s engagement suggestions here.

Who can resist more numbers? AllFacebook broke it down for us last month:

• Posts that asked specifically for likes got 240 percent more likes than posts that did not.
• Posts specifically requesting input got 70 percent more comments. (Those that asked more than one question, however, received fewer comments.)
• Posts receiving the most comments averaged 144 characters — about the length of a tweet. (In case you missed our blog on Twitter, check it out here.)
• Fill-in-the-blank posts landed the best response rate: 370 percent more comments than open-ended questions.

Use personality on your business’s page. This goes hand in hand with being conversational.

NYT makes a great point: “Flaunt your personality. The page of an ice cream parlor should feel different than that of a funeral parlor.”

On top of having a page for your business, Facebook offers advertising options. You can tailor your ad to a gender, to an age group, to a geographic location, to those with certain keyword interests, etc. Facebook lets you combine your budget and your demographics — and lets you change your angle if you are not getting the results you wanted with a certain approach.

As mentioned before, Facebook advertising is affordable. A screen capture on a Facebook-authored document showed a $5 budget reaching upwards of 20 people (depending on the other demographics and keywords).

Jason Keath, CEO and founder of Social Fresh, a social media education company, told Mashable: “Facebook offers more options and data than any other online marketing channel. Ever. I can target an ad to editors that work at BusinessNewsDaily. I can target an ad at hiring mangers for The New York Times. I can target people in my ZIP code that love BBQ. The options are endless. That gives a business access to marketing gold and relevance.”

Although the power to find the people in 81147 who like Star Wars and cupcakes is remarkable, small businesses have to remember that others interested in their products are not as comfortable with social networks.

Your mother might not want to purchase something through Facebook, but a bourbon-chocolate cupcake and Darth Vader might indeed be her thing. Give users the option to head to a traditional website from your Facebook page — and track the traffic — says NYT.

TechCrunchlets small businesses in on a way to appear on fans’ news feeds: “sponsored stories.” Using some of your budget on sponsored stories makes your posts visible higher in users’ news feeds, when they might have otherwise missed them if they were not logged on when you published. You can also use sponsored stories to reach certain demographics and friends of friends.

As always, you want to interact, so announce your page via e-mail marketing, a physical sign in a store, and even QR codes on menus.

Measuring

Set goals, and keep track of activity.

No matter where you look when you Google “Facebook marketing,” you will come across Facebook Insights. This feature allows you to analyze demographics and content consumption.

You can export the data from Facebook Insights to an Excel spreadsheet for your own records — or for explaining progress to your boss, if you’re the social-media manager.

Summary

Just as your cover photo makes its big impression, your posts are always representing your brand, too.

Current, engaging photos are your sure-fire posts for interacting with fans and customers. Give them an inside look and drum up conversation.

Make your list of goals, set your budget, interact, and keep track as you take the plunge.