More than 600 million people now use the social network Facebook, and it will only get bigger. With the recent news of Facebook looking into ingratiating deeper Social features into mobile, means social interaction with the world will be even closer than it already is.
Brief History
Just to give a brief background on Facebook (if you’ve seen the film you can skip this section).
View the Wikipedia article here
Facebook was founded in February 2004 by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg. It was initially only available to Harvard students, although then expanding to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, Stanford University, then to other Universities around the world, to high schools and finally open to anybody over the age of 13.
Facebook is a Social Networking website, meaning that an individual can create and personal account containing their name, date of birth, likes & interests, where they live and include photos and videos. They can then connect to other people who they know around the world by searching and ‘adding’ them as a friend. Upon logging into your Facebook account you can see your ‘News Feed’ which contains latest information about what your friends have been up to. Users can add albums of photos into their account, ‘tagging’ their friends in them so that that photo then appears on their friends profile. You can write what you are up to in your status bar, which is then posted onto your profile wall and is displayed on your friend’s news feed.
I could go on all day about the features and services offered by Facebook, but I think that just about covers the basics.
So how can Facebook help my business?
The title of this article is ‘How can Facebook help my business?’ Well, a beneficial feature of Facebook is the capability of creating an Official Page for a Local Business or Place, Company, Organization, or Institution, Brand or Product, Artist, Band or Public Figure, Entertainment or a Cause or Topic. Let me tell you that this is a brilliant way to connect with customers and existing clients around the world.
Let’s take a local business as an example of how Facebook can help to promote and keep client relationships strong.
A local ‘car mechanic’ is a good example. Let’s call them ‘Joe’s Mechanics’. Joe has a website for his business, which gives contact details, location, description of his services and a few prices for procedures (such as MOTs and Servicing). He also has a Google Places Listing, to enable people to find him in Google and on Google Maps. He needs an immediate way to stay in contact with customers and potential business. This is how Facebook can help.
Joe enlists the help of a local Online Marketing agency, let’s use Judd Associates. Judd Associates discuss with Joe exactly what he wishes to accomplish by using Facebook, and outline some key points:
- To be able to answer customer’s questions
- To offer promotions and offers on products & services
- To have a section for videos, demonstrating weekly car checks and maintenance
- To have have business information and a map, showing where he is and his opening hours
As Joe already has a personal Facebook account, Judd Associates set Joe up with an Official Facebook Page for a ‘Local Business or Place’. They set Joe up as the page administrator and enter all the relevant contact information for Joe’s Mechanics. They then build out the Facebook page to include a ‘discussions’ section, where Joe and his customers can discuss car questions. A video page, where Joe can upload videos either to Facebook or stream in videos from a YouTube Channel.
Judd Associates then register Joe’s Mechanics with a Facebook Places page, which displays contact and navigation information for his business address, and then link the Places page to the Official Page.
Checking In
A newly introduced feature for Facebook mobile was the introduction of ‘checking in’. This enables mobile users to hack in at a location or place, this is then shared on that users Facebook wall, and also adds a new unique check in to that place’s page.
The benefit to this feature is that businesses can now offer promotions and discounts to people who come to their place and ‘check in’. In Joe’s case, this may be a free car Air Freshener, or maybe 5% Off of an MOT. This not only is beneficial to the customer who checks in, but also promotes the place, Joe’s Mechanics.
The final outcome
Joe now has a highly functional Facebook page for his business, he is enjoying talking to customers and new visitors about their car questions and is generating lots of new business. His Youtube Channel has had many hits to his videos, people are also then sharing those videos on their own Facebook walls, further promoting Joe’s profile. Many customers are choosing to come to Joe, use their mobile device to check in and receive discount on their car’s MOT.
This is only an example, and only a certain type of business, of how Facebook has become such a unique tool to businesses. With the population of Facebook growing by the day, users are finding and ‘Liking’ official pages more and more, and of course this does not only apply to businesses, Facebook offer Official pages for Companies, Organizations, Brands & Products, Artists, Bands & Public Figures, Entertainment, Causes and Topics, and their are many ways of promoting each unique page.
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