Grow Your SBDC with Social Media: Focus on Facebook

2 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved Agenda  Introduction – Socialnomics Video  Social Media Reality  Part 1- Facebook Basics  Best Practices To Apply  Common Mistakes To Avoid  Leveraging YouTube To Power Up Facebook  Part 2 – Facebook Advanced Techniques  Recommended Resources  Close

3 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved Social Media Reality: It’s No Fad  Social media is in the mainstream:  Zuckerberg was Time’s Person of the Year  Twitter is Fortune’s cover story this week  Twitter leaked the Osama killing before Obama told us  Small business use is growing fast, now at 61% per Brian Solis  Nearly ½ of Americans at least on 1 social network, double the 2008 number – MediaPost Online Media Daily  Social media has surpassed as a means of communication between people – Wall Street Journal, 2009  YouTube is the world’s 2 nd largest search engine

4 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved Social Media Reality: You Need To Be There  93% of participants in a ‘Social Media in Business’ study believe that all companies should have a presence in social media. And 85% believe “companies should not just present information via social media, but use it to interact and become more engaged with them,” according to Paul Dunay, Buzz Marketing for Technology

5 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved Ok, So Why Facebook?  It’s the biggest and most used social network  It’s the most flexible  The pace is just right  There are countless apps  The availability of helpful educational content is vast  It’s strong in the paid, owned and earned areas

6 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved The Terminology For Business Users  Business Page (fan page) – people Like your Page  Liker (fan)  Tabs, Wall/Home/News Feed, Profile  Alias  Share vs Suggestion  Applications  Places  Events

7 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved Page versus Profile  Why create a Business Page? Can’t we just use our Personal profile or start a Group?  Biz Pages are visible to unregistered people and indexed  Biz Pages can have an unlimited number of fans  Biz Pages help to create an entity identity  Biz Pages can advertise and have clicks driving Fan adoption

8 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved What is a Business Page?  A dynamic alternative to a website. A place to post all kinds of information (pics, blog posts, links to web pages, videos, new product info) and have dialogue with your fans.  It can be the community your website will likely never be  It’s a place where you can  support your clients  do research through polling  have instant engagement  drive registration for your classes

9 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved Create a Page  Find the Create a Page link at the bottom of any screen  Should you choose Local Business or Organization? You can choose either one  You can change your type after you’ve set it  Use a Profile picture that will look good in the mini-box  Connect a mobile phone to update via text or  Be sure to set the Page so others can post to it

10 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved What to Post on Your Page  Your classes  Links to helpful articles  Promotions  Videos of clients  Client profiles  Advisor profiles  Videos of advisors teaching  Pictures of your location  Blog posts

11 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved What Else You Can Post  Statements about new services you’re offering  Thank You notes to attendees after events you hold  Notices about upcoming local events you want to share  Posts about business partners with a link to their site  Links to helpful websites you want to share  Invitations to connect in other media: Twitter, Yelp, YouTube  Polls  QUESTIONS

12 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved How Do I Get Fans?  Promote your Page everywhere:  Website  Newsletter  All printed literature including business cards  At center with a sign  At all events  Visit the Pages of your clients and partners as your Page (demo)  Have engaging content! Remember the earlier quote on what people expect from companies in the social space

13 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved Best Practices To Apply  Post 1-2x daily and don’t give up  Post a variety of items  Have a Welcome Tab  Don’t expect 1 person to do it all, have a committed group  Reply quickly to ALL comments  Don’t remove negative comments unless they’re offensive  Above all, seek engagement  Commit to ongoing learning

14 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved Common Mistakes To Avoid  Posting many items in a row  Using a Profile instead of a Page  Ignoring Comments  Going weeks at a time without Posting  Repeatedly posting the same type of item (e.g., class announcements)  Closing your Wall to Posts from others  Not promoting the Page  Posting at the wrong times

15 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved Video Is A Powerful Engagement Tool  Let’s cut to Ann Johnson-Stromberg now for some tips on using YouTube to power up your Facebook Page

16 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved Advanced Techniques  Being advanced on Facebook falls in to 5 categories:  The look  The depth  The integration  The expenditure  The measurement

17 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved The Look  First impressions count everywhere. Facebook is no different.  Where can you improve the look of your Page?  Start with a Welcome tab  Research shows that a smart Welcome tab increases Likes  Next, go with a custom Banner on your Wall  Complement that with planning the 5 pictures up top

18 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved Custom Welcome Page

19 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved Custom Banner & Image Manipulation

20 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved The Depth  How rich is your Page? Is it a Wall, Info and a few Photos?  The Apps Marketplace has a lot of custom apps you can add to your Page. Go to Edit Page  Apps  Browse More Apps  Involver offers 2 free tabs. I use Files and Twitter Feed.  Use Constant Contact? Add a Join my list tab.  Pick the Pages you’ll Feature (under Edit Page  Featured)  Share really good content from other sources  Remember, mixing up the content to keep things interesting is advanced. Most Page owners don’t change it up regularly

21 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved Example: Rich Tabs & Featured Likes

22 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved The Integration  This is your second hub online so integrate it like your site  Send your Posts to Twitter  facebook.com/twitter  Add Like & Send buttons to your site  Edit Page  Marketing  Send your blog to your Wall w. Networked Blogs in FB Apps  Add your Facebook Page link to your LinkedIn profile  Add Twitter and YouTube tabs to your Facebook Page  Every thread on Facebook is its own page. Share links to top Posts elsewhere, e.g., your newsletter, blog or Twitter

23 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved Integration Example: YouTube

24 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved Integration Example: Blog Feed

25 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved The Expenditure  Facebook recommends you understand not only Owned and Earned media but also Paid  Be willing to consider:  Facebook Ads  Facebook Deals  Sponsored Stories  Get more info on Ads and Sponsored Stories here: Facebook Marketing Solutions Page  Resources

26 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved Facebook Ads  Facebook’s advertising is relatively inexpensive (can start with a few bucks/day) and can be highly targeted by geography, marital status, Likes, age  Just write your text, choose an image, pick a link, set a budget and go for it  You’ll usually go for CPC versus CPM. Why?  Test different creative to see what works  Keep trying to beat what’s worked best

27 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved Facebook Deals  Just launched in a few US cities including San Francisco and San Diego  Facebook’s answer to Groupon, Living Social & Yelp  Choose a special offer that incents a group to participate, then post it up  Facebook will promote Deals in numerous ways including by to Deals subscribers  You work with Facebook’s team to create a deal  Get info  Bottom of Deals page, link for merchants

28 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved The Deals Link – Home Screen

29 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved The Deals Page

30 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved Sponsored Stories  Converting Page and website actions in to ads  This works when you want to reach friends of fans  Turn Post Likes into ads that display to Liker’s friends  Or turn a key Post in to a Sponsored Story and get more mileage out of it. Will show to your Fans only.  Priced like Ads  Get info from Facebook Marketing Solutions  Facebook recommends using this and Ads together

31 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved The Measurement  There are Post Insights that tell you about the impressions and feedback on specific posts  Then there are Page Insights that tell you about Interactions and Users of your Page  It’s important that you look at these and learn from them to refine your activity  There are also 3 rd Party apps like Tabsite that allow you to integrate Google Analytics with your Page

32 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved Where To Find Your Insights

33 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved Some Favorite Online Resources  Social Media Examiner:  Mashable:  AllFacebook.com:  Mari Smith:  Facebook Marketing Solutions: facebook.com/marketing

34 © 2010 Northern California SBDC, All Rights Reserved San Francisco Small Business Development Center 300 Montgomery St, #789 San Francisco, CA Tel: (415)