Have you seen some of those great custom Facebook™ Pages that show exactly what you want new followers or prospective customers to see as soon as they look you up.

Do they work or are they just a new way to spend money?

I have implemented a few corporate Facebook Pages now and the answer is; it depends. Yeah I know, that dreaded non-answer. Well, that's just how it is and any Web Design or Web Marketing expert worth the title will immediately follow that up with a bunch of questions such as:

• Who are you marketing to?
• Are you after new customers or customer communication?
• Do your followers potentially have stuff to share with you and each other?
• Are the people in their friend lists likely to become customers?

If you want more detail on the nitty gritty of campaign development see my post on The long answer to "Is Facebook Twitter and other social marketing strategies good business sense".

Case Study ATS Facebook Page Design and Implement

When Australian Training Solutions www.oztrains.com answered those questions (and more) it became clear that this was a valid marketing platform. ATS run hospitality courses and their key demographic includes school leavers, young international visitors on a working visa (backpackers) and I daresay, out of work actors. You can see their Facebook page here.

The brief was to create a Facebook™ Page landing page that showcases current courses and specials with deep linking into the main website. Past and current students are encouraged to engage in dialogue with the trainers and administrators and new information is posted where appropriate.

The page does account for hits to the website and vice-versa (details are confidential) and the number of followers is on a steady increase.

Staff can now interact with past, present and future students providing them with additional value in areas such as who's hiring, changes in qualification requirements and even providing them with the beginnings of a professional network.

Speaking of Spending Money...

Setting up is the easy part. Most Facebook page setups are fairly straight-forward. The real skill is in making sure that you are establishing a real community.

Off-hand, the cost of a basic Facebook page setup, contributor access setup and training will probably be around $500 - $700. A fancy custom page design without much FBML (Facebook's own language) adds around $700 - $800.

And, you're away!

Want to find out More about Facebook Pages?

Call Web Design Experts on 1300 884 553 or leave your details on their Facebook and Twitter Social Networking page for a fast call back.

Social Media marketing using Facebook, Twitter, advertising and Landing Pages

The long answer is as unique as your business, however some of the more general points are:

• You get a mechanism to communicate with your customers and prospects as often as you want
• Your customers and prospects get to respond and comment too
• Whether they are happy or not, it's all good because it gives you the opportunity to address issues that you would never have known existed
• The only time you should censor a comment is if it is malicious, inappropriate or derogatory
• Referral business is often the most profitable in terms of customer acquisition. Social media makes it easy for customers to share their experiences
• The whole social media landscape is about interacting with the community and building loyalty through honest and straight-forward dialogue.

Posts must be engaging such as:

• Hey! Here's how one of our customers benefited by using product X in a new way
• There's an important update for product Y on our website
• Last Friday our company lunchtime pool comp was held - here are some photos
• Sign up for this Event on that Day

You get the drift...

You Spoke - We Listened

These days it's not enough to have a professional end engaging website. Businesses need to consider their online presence as a sales, marketing and support function that should be contributing to the overall success of the business.

If you are not engaging with your customers and prospects online then you may be missing out. I have realised that in order to help fire up this latent business development engine you need a plan. That's where we can help.

Our Social Media Services value proposition

We do the research to determine what the current best practices are and to identify the danger spots. Our consultants are constantly updating the corporate knowledge base to help you decide what you want out of this (usually business related) and how far you are willing to go to get it (from a resources perspective).

We work with you to define the most appropriate course of action and the areas we look at are:

• The potential for your business to benefit
• Which marketing and communication methods are appropriate for your goals and budget
  
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google Adwords campaigns
  • Email Marketing
  • Blogging
  • Print advertising
  • Mini-sites (also known as landing pages, lead capture pages or more colloquially - squeeze pages
  • On-page chat facilities (new)
• How much is the business willing (or able) to take on
• How will the statistics be reported and how often

How much does a Social Media Campaign cost?

Before I delve into facts and figures I need you to think about what you currently spend on printing, newspaper ads, radio/TV ads, yellow pages, magazines and any other advertising media that you currently utilise. Now, while I am not advocating the abandonment of these forms of advertising media I will ask you to look at the amount of business that you can attribute to these more traditional campaigns.

Many people actually don't really know what works and why, whereas on the internet almost everything can be measured.


That's why we won't suggest anything that can't be measured - the incredible diversity of businesses and organisations means that there is no "Package Deal". We suggest, implement, test and measure every campaign we are involved in.

The great news is that we can begin this process with a suite of services whose results we can measure and review.

We can get you onto Facebook and Twitter (and optionally any other appropriate social media network), show you how to keep it up to date or manage the updates for you. This service generally starts at about $550. From there we are able to look at other strategies designed to elicit a specific response such as complete a form, call a phone number or sign up for something. This is where the resources requirement (and cost) can vary immensely.

What if I don't have the budget for an ongoing campaign of new business acquisition?

You can still have your business represented on social media networks and simply see how it goes. I know a guy who set up a basic Facebook page and now has over 15,000 followers in less than one year!

As a minimum you should at least have a presence

It won't break the bank and you never know, you might end up with a huge following too. I just read a great article on the Smartcompany Blog about a small independent video store (yes - one store) and how they boosted business via Facebook and zombies (read it now).

Are you interested?

This link will take you to our own landing page for our Social Media Services where you can register your interest in an obligation free chat about getting social and building business. Or call us on 1300 884 553

The site is up and running. All of the vital information has been uploaded.

Where are my visitors?

Good Web Design and clever user experience setup are critical to guiding visitors through your website and presenting them with a credible and compelling call to action. The next question is; "How do I get them there?"

The answer, as with so many business questions is; "it depends".

So to that end, being a highly visual thinker I have mind-mapped the situation from a generic point of view. Have a look, download the pdf version and use it as a starting point.
Cross out the areas that are not doable - for example; TV advertising can be a little out of many small businesses reach so go ahead and cross that right off the list. If you don't know whether a particular method is right for you then ask an expert. Far better to pay for an hour's consulting than spend days trying to do the research yourself.

Once you have your own list together then it's time to look at ROI. Well the returns side anyway. Before you go off getting prices have a good think about the potential return of each method in terms of tangible as well as intangible benefits.

I say potential return for a reason. Namely, you will never really know what the ROI will be until you do it. This is where your innate understanding of your business and its goals will be crucial. Now you will probably need to enlist the services of someone who spends a significant amount of time keeping up to date with the latest trends and techniques and what is working for whom.

Get them to outline a plan and ask as many questions as you need to understand at a non-technical level just how this all works and, of course how much it might cost. Forget the old thinking that the internet space is free or low-cost advertising - concentrate on your returns and manage the process as you would a traditional media campaign (which may even be part of your plan as well).

In closing, it is important to note that the measurability of campaigns means that you can (instantly in some cases) see whether your campaign is performing adequately or not. On the web, almost everything can be measured. Get reports or ask your provider to include on-going analysis as part of the service. Find out what works and do that - lots.

So, What is Social Media

And how can it help me?

Social Media is information that is disseminated via online social interaction. It's about sharing information, it is enormous and growing fast. A case study can explain this far better; I have a friend Matt, who is passionate about travel, he's a travel agent by profession and he is quickly understanding the value of social media and how the right combination of information and promotion brings him in touch with over 6000 people that he might never have reached using traditional online and offline media. So how does that translate into money in the bank?
It doesn't, well not directly. The Facebook page, I SO need a holiday does more than create referrals, it builds social capital which is (in this case) the creation and building of presence and credibility throughout people on Facebook who oddly, like holidays. Because of the quirky title, the sheer number of people who identify with the sentiment and the appropriateness of the content all combined to lead people to join up and then refer the page to their contacts and so-on.

So just how did Matt get from 0 to 6,630 fans in less than 5 months?

The answer is consistency. He began with sharing some of his own holiday pics and sent a message to all of his personal facebook buddies asking them to join up. They did, then those facebookers were given the opportunity to invite their friends and so on. It's not all organic growth though. Matt also did a little paid advertising on facebook with a very low budget and added a few links from his website.

While it sounds simple the key that made it all possible was that he kept it relevant. There are a few sponsored posts (which were appropriate to the subject area) but he knew what people looking for a holiday wanted to see. No price lists, no gratuitous links to his website. All posts speak to the main message of the page rather than a business or advertising purpose.

Obviously Facebook isn't the only social media vehicle out there. Actually, the possibilities are almost limitless. Blogs, forums, chats, photo audio and video sharing, anything that allows you to leave a comment, games, social bookmarking and many more. Wikipedia has a good list if you are interested. This is not about converting leads to sales, it's about establishing a community from which customers can develop.

The process of setting up a single social media page is fairly straight forward all you have to do is forget that you are trying to sell something and concentrate on the aspects likely to entertain, inform, intrigue or otherwise engage people in your target demographic. If you really want to integrate it into your internet marketing strategy then you need to develop a plan, initiate the processes (fan pages, video streams, podcasts or twitterings (to name a few)), keep it relevant and commit to regular updates and active monitoring to measure exactly what works.

The first part of the statement above is easy and not particularly time consuming. The second part where it becomes a strategic business tool can be incredibly complex and time consuming.

If you think that this type of strategy might help your business then contact us for a chat.

And this is just part one of building and leveraging social capital effectively for business growth.

Part 2: Email Marketing without being accused of spamming
Part 3: Now that I have customers how to support them (FAQ, WIKI, Self Serve Support, Paid Support)