You Pokin' Me?
When I first saw the new Facebook profile design, the first thought was “Why are they killing us with all the pictures?!” I do not just mean the row of the latest photos you have been tagged in, but photos everywhere. Now there is a long list of photos of friends that stretch far down the left side of the page.
It goes way beyond photos, too. Now all of that stuff you wanted near the top of the page where people are more likely to see it, such as websites, and the little box with your brief message … They are gone! Mine had a nice compilation of my blog addresses and Facebook pages, and my message said “Driving fast is not dangerous … it is the slowing down that can kill you. Drive like death is chasing you and it will all be fine!” Now that stuff is buried under the “Info” link somewhere.
Now I have “Pokes” right there at the top of the right side of the page, just where I needed it. Pokes … seriously? Why in the world would I need pokes near the top of the page? Don’t poke me. This is not MySpace (yet), and I am not sending you a unicorn for your Farmville, either! Fortunately, I found that if you click the “x” beside each of the pokes, it will go away. I never noticed how many people had poked me! Now I feel like a pincushion.
I am listing a few areas where it was even more frustrating than a “poke”.
Something important to note is that even if you are not using the new Facebook profile design, the new version is what other people will see after they switch. If you want to control what they (we) see first, you should take a close look at your settings!
Employer
Something that bothered me even more about my new Facebook profile was the “Employer” part. Fine, maybe that will be more conducive to business networking, but … there is a big but!
If your employer has a Facebook page, and many do, it will try to link to that. However, what I found is that it may order things differently than expected. For example, I wrote three books in 2009. Now, all of the sudden, one of my books came up as the employer listed on the front page of my profile. That was because it was the newest thing in my employment history. Plus, when I went to the “Info” link where all of my work is laid out, it listed each of my employers’ Facebook pages, but the photos were the generic Facebook page placeholder, and it linked to generic pages, and not my established Facebook pages. My solution was to delete and re-add each of them, paying attention to dates, so it would reflect the one I want to show on my profile. Since I have multiple companies, that was just another hassle to deal with.
Employers are also listed first when clicking on the “Info” link on profiles. It seems that Facebook is trying to increase the prominence of “Employers” and make it a hybrid of LinkedIn and Google Profiles. In fact, it is quite interesting how similar it looks in comparison with a Google profile.
Basic Information
If you want to see somebody’s “Basic Information”, or for people to see yours, be ready to scroll a while. You will find it down below their Employers, Education, Philosophy, Favorite Quotes, Sports, Arts and Entertainment, Books, Movies, Television, and Activities and Interests.
I really didn’t need Johnny Cash showing up above my “Basic Information”, did I? It is basic, so shouldn’t we lead with basic info and save some of our more specific information for scrolling?
At first, it seemed that you could clean this up by editing your profile and dragging your “likes” to hide them, but it is not intuitive. There is a tiny little statement “Drag here to hide”, but it does not even appear until you start to drag the image. What I found later was that it showed up anyway, unless you go to each page and “dislike” them.
Drag here to hide is not intuitive!
Tagged Photos
Since Facebook is now displaying a row of the most recent photos you were tagged in right at the top of your profile, it leaves a couple of choices. You can either elect to no longer allow tagging of photos of you, or you can be sure to go tag yourself in something more flattering. There is a little “x” in the corner of each image, but if you are like me, you want to choose the images displayed on your profile. I took a couple minutes to go tag myself and it cleared it up, for now, but only until somebody catches me with a stupid look on my face again.
New Facebook Summary
Clearly, Facebook has a right to do whatever they feel is good for their company. In this case, it probably prompted millions of users to make updates to their information. That was clever on Facebook’s part. It also gave them more room to place advertisements. The bad side of that is all the distraction from the squillion other images scattered around the page.
I find that for a lot of people, Facebook marketing consists of creating a Facebook page (or worse, a Facebook profile) and gathering a few “fans” who will give them just enough inspiration to feel they are being productive. They will put the Facebook “f” on their website in order to appear more modern, and keep their fingers crossed hoping that somehow Facebook will increase their profits.
There is a lot of confusion about Facebook, and especially for small businesses. However, small business is not alone, and unleashing the real value of marketing using Facebook is elusive for many companies. Efforts are often just enough to keep the person signing the checks on board for another 30 days for more trial and error. Poor planning and lack of measurement are commonplace in social media marketing, but that is not an effective way to run a marketing campaign.
Facebook marketing is often looked at with an eye toward “trying it out” and keeping the risk low. It is challenging for many people to accept, but the risk should go down the more you put into it.
Facebook can be a great place to market your business. If performed well, it can also help you to gather a lot of really useful data to help your business outside of the Facebook platform. Let’s unwrap a true sense of how a Facebook marketing campaign could look. This is the dramatically abbreviated version, of course. I will break this down into steps as follows:
Skip around as you like. Some of this is for the novice, while some of it is less novice. In any case, I hope that you will find it to be useful information.
There is a lot that you can do with a Facebook page. Of course, note that I said “page” and not “profile”. There is a huge difference between a Facebook page and a Facebook profile. More companies are figuring this out every day as their profiles are being deleted for breaking Facebook’s policy regarding using profiles for business.
Name your page well, fill out every field in the Facebook page setup, and seed it with enough information that your earliest fans will know why they should “Like” it other than just because you said they should.
Tip: While creating your Facebook page, roll these few words around in your head: inviting, interesting, creative, unique, different, informational, entertaining, humorous … or whatever will be attractive to the audience you seek.
Optional: If you have a good FBML (Facebook Markup Language) programmer and a designer worth a hoot, it will help. This is not critical, but can be very useful.
The step of customer modeling is skipped so often that there should be little wonder why most Facebook marketing fails miserably. Lack of proper customer modeling is a cause for many marketing endeavors to fail, but this is especially true in the current world where “everybody is a marketer” as witnessed in abundance on Facebook. A large segment of Facebook marketing is not performed by a marketing professional, but rather a business owner or somebody with limited marketing experience.
One of the tragic pieces of information missing for the average person trying their hand at Facebook marketing is that marketing does not just mean shotgun blast advertising. To get the most out of marketing, we need to know answers to questions of who, what, where, when, why, and how. We need to reach the right people or we waste credibility.
I don’t care how great your hamster skin purses are, I am not in the market. Marketing those purses to me is a huge waste of time.
Customer modeling involves creativity, analytic thinking, and data. If you do not have the data to tell you who, what, where, when, how, and why people will respond to your marketing, you need to create it. Without knowing how to reach the right people with the right information, you may as well skip all the rest, because your time and money will largely be wasted. Worse yet, it can damage your brand value.
Think of how much you enjoy receiving badly targeted advertising for things you would never purchase and then consider how much people will enjoy it coming from you.
Fortunately, there are reliable ways to get your hands on this data you so badly need. If you are certain that you already have a good handle on customer modeling, move on to the next step. If not, don’t worry, I will get back to this, so move to the next step anyway.
An easy first approach to promoting a Facebook page is to suggest it to all of your Facebook friends. Sure, that makes sense, and if they actually like you, there is a better chance they will “Like” your page. This is fine, and I recommend it, but often not a really good target demographic for your business. Besides, don’t all of your friends already know what you do for a living?
A common hope is that you will have something so brilliant and earth-shaking that some of those friends will buy from you, and when their friends see that they “Like” your Facebook page, that it will spread massively and the whole population of Facebook will come swarming and buy everything you offer for sale. Yes, that sounds awesome, right? Rub a lamp! It does not work this way, and if you tried it, you probably already know this is the case.
Your Facebook friends, although surely a great group of people, are often not as passionate about what you sell as you are.
An effective alternative is to use carefully targeted Facebook advertising to reach a specific audience. I am going to provide an example of how to reach specific people, and also how to use the information you gain from it.
Mark’s Example: Let’s say I am trying to sell Smart Slate interactive whiteboards. No, I do not sell these, and I have no stake in the market. I chose this, because I wrote about it as another example a while back. This is just an example to explain targeting using Facebook advertising to build a better marketing strategy.
What do I know about the Smart Slate market off the top of my head? I know that they are used in a lot of classrooms. I also know that schools have a hard time budgeting for them. I actually know this because my kids’ school has had fundraisers to buy them. So, in this case, I may want to test my Facebook ads with teachers and other school related interests. Why do I want to connect with teachers? I will explain that more in Step Four.
Since I am only going to sell these items in a specific region, I only want to target specific areas. I could choose to target anything from a worldwide audience to only my specific city. For the example, I will use my state of Kansas, and the surrounding states of Nebraska, Missouri, Colorado, Oklahoma. Now, in order to target teachers in my target area, I will go to create an ad on Facebook and see what kind of a target I can come up with. It will look something like this screenshot:
Notice that this brings the selected audience down in size but it is still far from being targeted. It still leaves me with 8,578,280 people age 18 and older who live in Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma or Colorado. That is far too broad, and it could look like selling hamster skin purses at a college fraternity party. I am not out to waste time and money. I want more customers.
Next, I will set some demographic details. In this example, I will target young teachers who may be more interested in technology, so I am using 30-40 year old college graduates who have specified interests in their Facebook profiles as follows: teaching; teacher; elementary teacher; teaching resources; or teachers. Note that Facebook helped me by suggesting interests. Here is what it looks like:
Now I have an estimated reach of 44,480 people who live in Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma or Colorado between the ages of 30 and 40 who graduated from college and like teaching, teacher, elementary teacher, teaching resources or teachers. This is looking better, but there is still a lot of potential for fine-tuning. This simply gives me a starting point for one of several ads I may want to use for testing my audience. In other test ads, I may want to broaden or narrow the age range and condense or expand my target based on demographics.
Once I have run the ads for a couple weeks, I will want to give careful attention to who responded. Facebook will report this information to me, and tell me what other common interests my responding test audience have. Who knows, I may find that a lot of my respondents also love hamster skin purses. If so, you can bet I am going to use that information in my other marketing efforts, as well as how I address my new pals on my Facebook page. I will use this information in my blogging and search engine optimization, as well as other online and offline efforts.
Do you remember that customer modeling that I mentioned? Information like this is what helps you to understand your model customer and stop wasting time and marketing dollars.
Facebook advertising is not where you will make a squillion sales and is not the entire campaign. It is just one tactic within the overall strategy of the campaign (see “Social Media Tactics Without Social Media Strategy Fails“).
Facebook ads are often best used for building brand awareness and bringing in those Facebook fans who will “Like” your page so that you can communicate with them. I said communicate … not just promote your latest special or badger them with flavorless advertisements. Provide them with value in whatever way you can. This is another step, and I will get to it, but mark my words: “Provide them with value!”
Something really great about Facebook advertising is the potential for segmentation. You can target an audience based on very specific interests that they have expressed with their “Likes and Interests”. This is not guesswork, and the segmentation possibilities are quite useful.
This is tricky for a lot of people. What are the keys to making awesomeness? A lot of it comes with experience. Awesomeness requires continual effort, so it should not be seen as just a quick fix. Marketing talent is not just inherited. It takes practice and patience.
In the case of my example in Step Three of reaching teachers with a message about Smart Slates, I want to learn from them. I want them to teach me their challenges, and learn how I can help them to afford my products. I want to learn what they have found useful about the products. I want to hear their success stories of school fundraisers which worked well. I want to help other teachers to find better ways to get my products into their classrooms. If I do this well, and if I am really useful to them, I will have a lot better chance of selling more Smart Slates in their school district. Plus, I will connect with a good number of teachers who may be more willing to relay my brand name to others.
Now, doesn’t this start to look more like a strategy than just advertising? This is what I mean by creating awesomeness. Doing things different from the rest and making a useful impact in some way.
Listen to the people on your Facebook page, and give them reasons to talk to you. Give them what they want. If you have done your customer modeling well, you have the information you need about what they will respond to. Use this information well, and use it for their benefit and not just your own.
If you have restaurant, ask them what their favorite menu item is, and how you could make it even better. Ask them reasons they like you and how you can improve. Have fun with them and post a challenge to see if anybody can eat the whole thing.
If you sell engine blocks, start a Facebook discussion and ask them if they have any engine replacement tips to share with others. Find out if they love auto racing, and what kind. Get them to post photos of the cars they are putting those engine blocks in. Learn if there are other performance auto parts they need.
If you sell Smart Slates, provide helpful tips for teachers or information for running a successful school fundraiser. Learn from the teachers.
If you sell cars … well, don’t get me started about car dealers using Facebook. That is another blog article, and I already wrote it.
I think you get my point. Just don’t act like a stereotypical car salesman!
You can do this all alone, or you may choose to enlist the assistance of an experienced marketer. In either case, it is best to pay attention and keep your eyes wide open to the possibilities. Marketing is a whole lot more than just shouting into a crowd and hoping for results. Applying good principles of marketing to the right people and with a better message can provide measurable benefits to a company.
This is a lot more targeted, measurable, and useful than other marketing tools such as the once-popular television advertising. I mean, just look at what television is doing these days.
Tagged on Facebook!I know, I just slapped a lot of Facebook’s 400,000,000+ users with an insult. The real insult is how many “Chicken Little” minds there are out there crying “The sky is falling!” You are a “grown up” right? You can take responsibility for things you say and do, right?
I have read about the biggest fear-mongering pitches ever surrounding Facebook’s privacy settings. I see people moaning about how all their privacy has been taken away and they feel all exposed. They whine about the fact that they actually have to take responsibility for the stupid things they don’t want the rest of the world to see. For me, that has simply been obvious. I mean, I keep my wallet in my pocket instead of leaving it on a counter at the airport. I have routers and virus protection to keep my data safe from prying eyes. If I don’t want somebody to have something, I just don’t give it to them.
If you are afraid of things like somebody tagging you in a photo on Facebook, how do you feel about blogs, email, or even fax for that matter? Is it the service’s fault for transferring the information? That seems kind of absurd to me, considering that transferring that information is exactly why people use Facebook. If people will just take a little time from their selfish Facebooking life to set how they want their information to be handled, maybe they can move on and complain about something else.
Facebook Privacy Beyond Facebook
If you are concerned about what somebody will see, keep it off the Internet. Did you forget that anything on Facebook or any other website can be copied and pasted, printed, or otherwise reproduced without your authority? Who are you going to blame for that? Will you blame the copier company?
“Facebook is not the whole Internet. What if they take the photo and email it and post it on their blog? Would you like Facebook to control that, too? What if the Internet didn’t exist at all? Couldn’t people still be embarrassed by a bad photo? Marilyn Monroe was, and she didn’t use Facebook.”
“That is the business they are in, but that does not make Facebook, Google, Twitter, or any other site responsible for our indiscretions, or for our privacy. I do not want my documents read when I take out the trash, so I shred them. I do my part to protect my privacy. My privacy is my responsibility. What others do to reduce my privacy by posting a photo or writing something about me is often beyond my control. That does not make me stay indoors. I just know that if I pick my nose while I am in public, those in my direct contact may not be the only public who see it. The fact that there is a venue to share it does not mean the venue should be blamed. It is like blaming the phone company for somebody sending a fax about you. The person doing the faxing is at fault, and not the phone company or the fax manufacturer.”
My point here is this: If you want to blame Facebook instead of yourself, it is like blaming your Internet service provider because you got a virus but did not protect yourself with up-to-date antivirus software. Take responsibility to know the services you use online. If you are not willing to take the time to know the rules of a service, and to keep up to date with those rules, don’t use the service. Nobody is breaking your arm to use Facebook.
Let’s be grown-ups and stop blaming everybody but ourselves for our personal responsibilities. Go set your Facebook privacy however it makes you feel comfortable, or delete your Facebook account like many fear-mongering technophobic users are suggesting.
Defending Facebook
Facebook is a corporation that makes decisions based on their interests. That is the way a corporation is supposed to work. Sure, you can whine that they should ask your opinion, but it seems apparent that they have a pretty good feel for what people want. Maybe you think a company with such a big omelet can do it without breaking a few eggs, but I don’t see anybody else attracting 400,000,000 people across the world for their great plan.
It seems to me that with a user-base larger than all but three countries in the world, they are doing just fine without you in their boardroom.
Facebook Profiles Are For PeopleI guess it should not shock me to see the many Facebook profiles with a company logo or even a company name instead of a person. It seems that a lot of people simply do not realize the difference between a Facebook Profile and a Facebook Page. I will break this down really simple for anybody who is confused.
Facebook profiles are for people, and not businesses. Facebook will delete your account for using a profile for a business. They may not catch each one, but I have seen it happen, and there are a lot of people out there who will report businesses using Facebook Profiles for business. It is written clearly in the Facebook rules as follows: “You will not use your personal profile for your own commercial gain”.
Facebook Pages are for business, and include features that are better suited for a company seeking to do business on Facebook. They are easy to create, and may save you from a deleted account. Go and check it out for yourself. Here is the link to create a Facebook Page.
The Receptionist and Facebook Marketing Expert
In this age of social media frenzy, a lot of people are scurrying to find the next silver bullet that will assure them the highest level of exposure at the very lowest cost. Small businesses are trying to turn receptionists into marketers and SEO (search engine optimization) experts. The cost of this can often mean utter failure, embarrassment, and even banning from the world’s favorite social network.
I see a lot of businesses using Facebook Profiles and it stuns me every time that they actually think it is fine to do so and that it is normal for potential customers to have to send a “Friend Request” in order to communicate with them on Facebook. Really, doesn’t that seem like an obstacle? Wouldn’t it make more sense that people can freely choose to communicate and see what a business has to say?
Facebook Pages and Other Facebook Business Tools
Facebook provides a lot of useful tools for those people who choose to use the Facebook service and Facebook Pages properly. There are many possibilities to integrate Facebook Pages and other Facebook business tools with your business website. For example, below is a Facebook “Like Box” including a stream of recent activity on my newest Facebook page. It allows people to “Like” my new Facebook Page from right here on my blog, without even having to leave and go to Facebook.
Just one more thing! Did you “Like” my newest Facebook Page yet? I plan to share some things and have some discussions there which will not be here on my blog. Go ahead … I made it easy for you! See below!
