2011/09/06
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Facebook for business in 10 minutes
Introduction
Facebook is the biggest online phenomenon of recent years. With more than 500 million—yes, that’s half a billion—users, and growing, Facebook’s pageviews rival those of fellow Web leader Google. Facebook has re-united old flames, helped people make new and keep existing friends, and kept families in touch across great distances.
Facebook is all about connecting people. It’s a new way to keep in touch—easier than meeting in person or a phone call, but richer and more personal than many email or text message exchanges. People young enough to have used Facebook in high school and college are more likely to stay in touch with their classmates after graduation, for instance, than earlier generations.
Now, Facebook has added new features that make it a potent tool for busi- ness. These tools include Facebook Places, which allows people to “check in” to a specific place on a mobile device; Facebook Deals, which can reward you for checking in to a place; and Facebook Ads, which are said to often be much more cost-effective than the Google equivalent.
Facebook has also improved fan pages—pages controlled by a business, organization, or well-known individual. The owner of a fan page can com- ment, like other fan pages, and interact much like an individual user of Facebook. This opens the door to a whole new way to stay connected to your customers.
After being founded at Harvard at the turn of the century, Facebook just grew and grew. A movie about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, called The Social Network, is a big hit, and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has used her Facebook page as a major political platform, although not without criticism. “Friending” people and “liking” Web pages have moved beyond Facebook to become commonplaces in people’s conversations. Facebook games like Farmville have become widely popular.
For established businesses to crack Facebook, though, has been tricky. Facebook’s somewhat bland user interface makes branding difficult. Some business Facebook pages “go viral” and get hundreds of thousands of “likes,” while others, which might appear just as promising, get none.
Even as business has somewhat languished on Facebook, Google has pioneered new ways for businesses to make, and spend, money online. Google AdWords, which allows companies to publish ads (mostly small, text ads) on Google search results pages, has made tens of billions of dol- lars a year for Google.
Google Places is a newer feature that allows companies to have a local presence in Google Search and Google Maps. Google Places includes easy-to-use coupons.
Facebook has followed with its own offering using the same name, Facebook Places, and the much more invitingly named Facebook Deals. Neither is really all that different than the Google equivalent. The differ- ence in how much good they are for you mostly has to do with the differ- ence between Facebook and Google.
The driving force behind Google is searching, leading to the rise of search engine optimization (SEO) and the way AdWords ties search terms to ad placements to ad clickthroughs. The driving force behind Facebook, though, is the “social graph”—the online links between Facebook users and their Facebook-using friends, families, and work colleagues. On Facebook, it’s all about connecting.
On Facebook, of course, everyone you’re connected to is a “friend.” You can put friends into different groups, but not that many people do.
Google works well when you’re targeting the individual searcher looking for something specific. Facebook works well when you want to “tip” a group of Facebook friends into becoming customers. The Facebook effort is harder, because you’re trying to get groups of people to come together. But a “win” that you achieve through Facebook advertising can be very powerful indeed.
On Facebook, you start with a Places page and a fan page. You can com- bine them, which Facebook recommends, or keep them separate, which I
think is generally better. Then, on your Places page or combined page, you offer Facebook Deals. Getting people to take advantage of Deals may not be the only purpose of your Facebook advertising campaign, but it’s the best measurement of its overall success.
Part of the way you “win” new business through Facebook is quite chal- lenging. You have to help people feel comfortable with your Facebook presence. That includes well-written copy, interesting images, and com- pelling special offers. But it also means understanding how people work, how they see your company and your products, and how they use Facebook within their lives.
For text ads, at least, Google AdWords advertising is a bit like an engi- neering project. You can try dozens of variations and test the effectiveness of each, one user at a time.
Effective Facebook advertising, though, requires that people recommend your offer to their friends. Attracting Facebook users includes subjective factors, and is more like making a great TV commercial. Everything you do has to be “right”—copy, images, layout, spelling—just to get people to pay attention. But there’s room for creative flair to make the difference between failure (not earning back your investment), moderate success, and a runaway hit advertising campaign.
Use this book to put together effective Facebook Places pages, fan pages, and Deals. Work hard, and monitor your results. Then, when you’ve got the basics down, start brainstorming on top of the solid base you’ve built. Add some fun and liveliness to your Facebook presence, and hope for magic to happen.
About This Book
This book really delves into the business uses of Facebook; as far as using Facebook goes, there’s only a brief overview of Facebook basics here. If you need an introductory guide to get you warmed up, start with Sams Teach Yourself Facebook in 10 Minutes. Create a personal Facebook page and get some experience with making Facebook friends, so you know what’s going on.
As part of the Sams Teach Yourself in 10 Minutes series of guides, this book aims to teach you the ins and outs of using Facebook for business, without using up a lot of your precious time. Divided into easy-to-follow lessons that you can tackle in about 10 minutes each, you learn the follow- ing Facebook tasks and topics:
. Setting up your personal Facebook profile
. Finding and installing apps
. Creating a Facebook fan page for your business
. Claiming your Facebook Places page
. Combining your business and Places pages—or not
. Editing your Places page
. Supporting multiple locations
. Driving traffic to your Places page
. Creating Facebook Deals
. Creating Facebook Ads
. Budgeting for Facebook Ads
. Tracking the impact of your Facebook presence
After you finish these lessons, and the others in this book, you’ll know all you need to know to take Facebook for your business as far as you want it to go.
Who This Book Is For
This book is aimed at all business owners, or leaders of other kinds of organizations, who want to create a Facebook fan page for their business, who want to have a Places page and Deals, who want to do Facebook advertising—or all of the above. This should mean just about everyone in business, or working in an organization!
You may have extensive computer and online experience, or you may have very little. You may also have some experience in marketing your business or organization through various means, including print and/or online
media, or you may have very little marketing background as well. This book will help you succeed on Facebook—whatever that means to you.
Throughout this book, the term “business owners” is meant very broadly. If you work in a social services agency, a public facility such as a swim- ming pool, or a nonprofit, you have people who you might call “clients,” “customers,” or some other term. They still need to know about what you’re offering and how to take advantage of it. So “business” isn’t just about for-profit businesses. (Though I like profits, too.) It means any store, location, or service provider that’s open to the public!
Each lesson in this book focuses on one specific topic, such as creating your Facebook Places page or creating a Deal that’s attractive to your online visitors. You can skip from one topic to another, read the book through from start to finish, or both. You can hand it to a friend, family member, or colleague to answer a specific question that they have, too.
What Do I Need to Use This Book?
You will need a computer with a web browser and reliable Internet access to use this book. A tablet computer, such as the iPad, or a small, low-cost
netbook will probably not be adequate for the tasks needed; you will prob-
ably want either a Windows PC or a Macintosh. Either a desktop or a lap- top model will do the job.
If you are not experienced with computers, or don’t have a computer, you may wish to buy a computer and procure Internet access, then learn how to use the computer itself and a web browser before proceeding.
Alternatively, you can find a friend or work colleague with the necessary equipment and skills and get their help in carrying out the tasks involved. If you are the one with the necessities, you can provide help to others; it’s fun to work together on tasks such as those involved with a Facebook presence.
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