SCORE Chicago on Facebook
While the social network Facebook is mainly for hanging around with your friends, businesses network and do low-key marketing here too. Both P & G and I (on behalf of the nonprofit organization SCORE Chicago) are trying to figure out how to “reach out” to prospects and customers who aren’t really there to see us. Except P &G has a budget to buy ads and create promotions. I must use the networking route for SCORE Chicago.
In “Do You Want to Friend a Detergent? Advertisers Face Hurdles on Social Networking Sites” Randall Stross recounts the experience of P & G with using Facebook to promote its brands. He concludes:
- Banner ads are disregarded.
- Attracting visitors to brand pages is possible only with expensive viral campaigns or give-aways. (Think free movie screenings or sponsored band concerts.) And “without endless investment, these promotions sputter out.”
- “Social Ads”, where your friends’ purchases are showcased, brings unwelcome attention to the brand.
Stross concludes, “Members of social networks want to spend time with friends, not brands.” Marketers spend increasingly large amounts of money to attract and hold attention. They have to balance being intrusive with being noticed. Or, as Ram Krishna said in a post on web 3.0 marketing, “there is very little ‘monetizing’ to be done from a Facebook-like network for that new, ultra-soft and kryptionite-strong toilet paper brand of yours.”
SCORE Chicago is going the networking route. The free route. We have a “page” on Facebook that describes our free counseling and inexpensive business workshops in Chicago. (“Profiles” are for people — “pages” are for causes, brands, events, etc.) Despite brief efforts this past summer, SCORE Chicago has only 6 fans. And I have a personal page and 187 friends.
Here’s what I have done to “market” the SCORE Chicago brand, to win fans for the SCORE Chicago page.
- Joined groups like Chicago Entrepreneurs.
- Reviewed profiles looking for those with a Chicago business and asked people to be my personal friends on the theory that I then could remind “friends” of SCORE Chicago and its page. I confess that I have not done this much. (Why do I want to refer them to this page, rather than our website?) But in the process, I found maybe 5 or 6 people who were interested in our advice and workshops.
- Created RSS feeds of our workshop listings and my blog posts so that content changes on SCORE Chicago’s Facebook page.
- Entered workshops as events on the calendar.
- Uploaded videos to this page.
- Send out “updates” to my current little group of fans.
- Asked satisfied clients to write compliments that they expressed in emails on the “wall” (like a bulletin board) of SCORE Chicago. They were pleased to do it, and I think it gives the organization third party credibility. I just wish they could post on a wall of our volunteer organization’s website.
- Written a blog post on how a small business like Das Foods might use Facebook to promote their caramels, recommending many of these procedures.
- Rounded up 34 links on How To Use Facebook to Promote Your Small Business
There has been no groundswell of interest in becoming a fan of SCORE Chicago. However, because of my personal profile, status updates, wall posts, etc, Facebook members have initiated contact with me to discuss how to improve their blog, start a social network or grow their business.
Guide to Facebook Fan Pages: Destinations versus Collaborative Conversational Spaces has an excellent discussion, which may explain why Facebook fan pages get such little traction. Hint: They can’t be destinations.
I got a very nice email through Facebook the other day from a young man with a business plan to review. He had read my YouTube for Business blog post and had some additional videos to suggest. Plus a business plan for us to look at. So Facebook has worked and continues to work, but I’m not sure how effective the business or brand pages are. No surprise, but the power is in the individual connections.
Here are several examples of small businesses with Facebook Pages: ZandaPanda bakeware, Das Foods caramels, Pacetat race bracelets.
We businesses and organizations are all struggling to befriend, to connect with potential customers on Facebook. What’s working for you? And P.S., please become a Fan of SCORE Chicago. Upper right.
Related posts:
34 Links on How to Promote Your Small Business on Facebook
Promoting Politely: What’s Naughty and Nice Business Etiquette on Social Networks
Facebook for Business: Setting Up a Profile Page for Das Foods
My Facebook bundle of links on Delicious (which includes items on Facebook’s business model as well as how to use it for business.)
