by Brad Trites, Account Manager, Twin Creek Media

I am going to make a very bold statement: “There is no marketing tool available to small businesses more powerful than Facebook”. I guess after making a pretty big statement like that, I better support it.

As a small business owner, the last time you took out a really expensive full-page ad in your city’s most popular phone directory or ran a TV or radio ad, did it provide you with constant referrals? Did your clients receive timely updates about new products that you are carrying or your daily specials? What about actively building your brand awareness, did it do that for you? A properly managed business page on Facebook has the ability to do all of these things and a lot more without having to be that word that all small businesses dread, “expensive”.

A Trusted Source
For most businesses the best source of new clients is usually referrals. When a friend tells you that they really like a certain restaurant, you are more likely to try it out. On Facebook, you follow a business’s page by clicking that page’s “Like” button. When you do this, your action is posted in the News Feed of your friends. You essentially just told all of those people, “I LIKE this and you should check it out!”. Since you are an interesting person with great taste, some of your friends will do just that, and guess what? If they hit “Like”, they will automatically tell all of their friends. Some of those people will take things one step further and even visit your website and possibly become a real customer.

Daily Special
Most businesses are constantly changing. They begin to carry new products. They run new promotions. They win an award. They have product tips or advice to share. They land new clients. These are all pieces of information that a small business wants their customers to know about as quickly as possible. Not only that, this is information that your customers want to know about! Facebook gives small businesses the ability to communicate in real time to their customers. This is key in helping you strengthen relationships with your customers and build customer loyalty.

Tag you’re it!
Once your small business has it’s own Facebook page and you have managed to get a couple of hundred people to “Like” it, the next step is to engage your fans and turn them into your own marketing army. If you post compelling content on your page, there’s a good chance that some of your followers will repost your items, “Like” it, Tag it, or Comment on it. Every time someone does one of these things, your brand gets placed in front of another large audience. Even if the majority of those people take no action themselves with the content, the more they see your name the greater their awareness of your brand becomes. If you’re business was given the opportunity to place free ads in front of an audience every day, wouldn’t you go for it? That is exactly the opportunity Facebook provides small businesses.

Lasers are cool…
One of the great things about Facebook for small businesses is that ‘friends of a feather tend to flock together’. If your company’s target market is 16 year old males that skateboard, chances are that those kids that “Like” your page have a Friends List dominated by other 16 year old boys that like to skateboard. Facebook provides an extremely effective way to put your brand in front of an extremely focused intended audience. Traditional marketing tools such as TV, radio, and magazine ads command huge premiums to access such focused target markets.

NOTE: Hey marketers! Did you know that the average age of a Facebook user is closer to 40 than 14!

WARNING!
Simply setting up a Facebook business page is not enough to generate results. Like any marketing strategy, your Facebook initiative requires both commitment and planning. Compelling content needs to be regularly created and posted on your page and a two-way dialog needs to be maintained between your business and your followers. There is both an art and a science to using Facebook as a marketing tool. As such, if you are not prepared to learn what needs to be learned or able to commit the time required to manage your page, then you should strongly consider hiring a social media-marketing specialist.

Bottom Line
Social media marketing creates engaging customer experiences, drives website traffic, foot traffic, and email/phone inquiries. Although social media is primarily about sharing & relationships, it ultimately results in more sales.  Don’t forget: online marketing tactics should be integrated with your offline efforts too!

Next Steps...
At Twin Creek Media, we have setup Facebook pages for many businesses... both B2B and retailers selling direct to consumers. Facebook is just one social network among other notable ones: Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, StumbleUpon, etc. It’s best to have an online marketing strategy that defines measurable goals and uses the best tools for the job. For a primer on the big picture, see our Social Media 101 article or download our Social Media Reference Card.

Need more convincing?
A properly executed Facebook strategy has the ability to generate new customers that are well informed on your business’s developments and willing to actively market your brand on your behalf. Let’s see your telephone directory pull that one off! If you want to chat more about this topic, come visit us at the Twin Creek Media Facebook page and we’ll keep the conversation going!

As part of the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce's Breakfast Education Series, Twin Creek Media was invited to give a presentation on the topic of Social Media Marketing for Business. The presentation is included below for reference. Press play, and use the arrows to navigate through. When you're finished, don't forget to "share" the knowledge with others using the buttons below.

Please connect with us and let us know what you think...
Web: www.twincreekmedia.com
Twitter: @twincreekmedia.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/twincreekmedia

The presentation covers:

• What is social media?
• What's the "big idea"?
• What are the benefits for small businesses?
• How are others successfully using social media for marketing and promotion?
• What are the current trends?
• How do I get started?
• Good tips and tools?

Okanagan Valley Entrepreneur's Society - Using Social Media to Drive Business: Entrepreneur's Edition

Town Hall Series Event
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010, Ramada Hotel Kelowna

Speakers:
James Shaw - CEO/Creative Director, Twin Creek Media
Susan Knight - Radio Announcer, SunFM99.9
Nick Kellet - Entrepreneur and Creator of GiftTrap board game

Do you Twitter? Are you Linked in? Is your face on Facebook? Have you updated your blog today?
A decade or so ago these questions would have puzzled most people. Today's entrepreneur faces these questions daily. Have you ever said to yourself "Should I jump on board and do what everybody else is doing or should I wait to see what happens?" or "I don't have time to do it. I need to work on my business!"

Note: the video was shot impromptu with a hand held device.  Apologies for the low image/audio quality!

Should you use Social Media?

What is the difference between Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn?

How should entrepreneurs use Facebook?

How often should you update your Facebook fan page?

How to use Linkedin for business purposes

A Thousand (cheap) Logos Will Never Replace THINKING First
A counterpoint to a recent Kelowna Capital News article

See original article that sparked the debate: Tapping into our younger generation can pay dividends

By Jennifer Smith - Kelowna Capital News
Published: March 04, 2010 6:00 PM

"...... The idea is simple. You post your specs, designers come up with a logo and the price they want for the design and you choose what you want.

There are other on-line design companies doing this mind you and, unfortunately, it can result in the out-sourcing of jobs to countries with cheaper labour, in some cases shooting local designers in the foot.

But in Beech’s case, there’s no competing on qualifications or large corporate wars involved, so it’s not a case of the big guys win simply for showing up.

Anyone can post a design and price it accordingly; so anyone could win the contract......"

Counterpoint

First of all, congratulations Terry & friends on the new business. It's a modern and scalable business model, using the power of crowd-sourced artwork. It's exciting to see startups with a team of talented local people!

I have to bring up a counterpoint though... I can't help but feel there is a potential downside for businesses using the "let me see a 100 logos for $250" system. Being in the marketing & design industry for the last 10 years, I've seen my share of good and bad logos. But that really isn't the point.  Others have commented on the unfairness to artists, and devaluing the talent, etc... but again that isn't my particular gripe.

Big Idea: A logo is just a piece of the overall branding.

Long before pencil touching paper, the brand strategy is critical to the overall success of the business. Usually, a lot of time is spent developing and asking proper questions: who is my audience, what are their tastes, what is my core message, how can I differentiate in an ocean of competitors? What is my brand promise to my customers? After that is done, now what is the visual interpretation of that background understanding - the logo. What is the logo concept? Is it a wordmark (text only)? Or a true logo (text plus icon)? What is the intended use? Is the logo reproducible in variety of formats - online and offline? (Here is where amateur 3D, complex gradients, and colour schemes with similar tonal values cause havoc.)

At least equal time should be given to strategy and design. Often, more time dedicated to the research, questioning, and strategic positioning phase.

I'm sure your business will find a good number of interested customers, and some of the advantages are great: multiple designers from around the world. Then again, a good marketing agency will offer multiple designers too, along with process and strategic pre-production phase.

Moral of the story: buyer beware. Eg. Think houses. Would you start choosing paint colours for rooms before figuring out which type of house to build?

Just thought I'd add my 2cents and play devil's advocate for a moment.

James Shaw, Principal/Creative Director
Twin Creek Media Inc.

In the marketing world there's been a phrase rolling around called "crowdsourcing".  It's the concept of getting input for an idea from the masses, or gathering content from the literal crowds.  Crowdsourcing is nothing new in the digital world of bits and bytes.  The internet is essentially a gigantic exercise in crowdsourcing... endless pages of content written by the people, for the people.  As social media tools continue to oust traditional 'controlled' delivery of corporate marketing messages, brand giants and mom n' pops alike need to understand that crowdsourcing is an unstoppable force.

There are even companies that take the power of crowdsourcing and turn it into an amazing business.  In a recent Wired Magazine article, Chris Anderson talks about Threadless, the open source t-shirt company.  I personally ordered about 10 t-shirts from Threadless due to the originality and quality of designs by people from all over the world.  It's just plain neat to wear clothing made by some ordinary Joe or Jane who has a incredible talent that would normally never see the light of day.

So the internet...whoopee.  T-shirts... cool, but so what?  Okay, cynics... how about crowdsourced cars.  Or do-it-yourself (production quality!) electronics or Lego accessories.  Read more in Chris' article if you're intrigued about the future of manufacturing...