Facebook is launching a small business education program this week, looking to show businesses how to optimize their individual pages and to use its self-serve ad platform to effectively target customers. According to an eMarketer report, 44% of small- and medium-sized businesses used social media as a marketing tool in August, and 59% spent less than $100 on social-media marketing. "We know that small businesses who use web technology grow more than twice as quickly, bring in twice the revenue, and create twice the jobs as small businesses who don't," said David Fischer, Facebook's VP-Advertising and Global Operations. He said 9.2 million small businesses in the U.S. have pages on Facebook, but only 3.2 million of those pages have active engagement. (Some pages exist essentially as shells, created by user signals on the social graph and without action taken by the business owner.) "You want to be in front of [people] -- maybe it's a few times a week you're posting a few sentences, talking about what's going on," said Mr. Fischer, noting that engagement is key for small business owners. "In most cases it's not a matter of this being particularly complicated." The program also aims to teach small businesses about Facebook ad products, like its self-serve platform and sponsored stories, which allows brands to build paid advertisements out of user signals such as likes and check-ins. According to Mr. Fischer, the amount that a small business might invest in self-serve ads targeted to their desired audience could range from $20 a month for a single proprietor business to thousands each week. But he says Facebook has learned of success stories, like two auto dealerships in Massachusetts: one that said it generated $20,000 in profits off $300 in ads and another that reported a $500,000 return on a $5,000 ad spend. Facebook itself generates as much as 60% of its ad revenue from its self-serve platform, according to an eMarketer report from January. Mr. Fischer says there's an internal awareness at Facebook that the company's tools could help stimulate economic growth and noted that Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is a member of President Obama's jobs council. "We spend a lot of time thinking about how we can work with small businesses, and we know we have tools that can help them effectively," he said.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Facebook Launches Program to Help Small Businesses With Their Pages and Ads
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
HOW TO: Start Marketing on Facebook
Facebook‘s proposition is especially attractive to small business owners, and not just because it enables them to hone in on potential customers through highly targeted, paid advertisements. Facebook also allows them to grow their business in a way that is familiar to many of them — through word-of-mouth marketing. “Ask [small business owners] how they get customers, and they’ll tell you that someone walks in, has a great experience, walks out and tells a couple of their friends,” says Emily White, senior director of local at Facebook. “Now, that word-of-mouth marketing model is happening online, and Facebook is enabling to happen that at scale. Now [small business owners] aren’t just reaching a few customers’ friends, but all of their friends, mimicking these long-term behaviors in a way that small businesses can actually control,” she explains. With these ideas in mind, we’ve compiled this six-step guide for getting started on Facebook. Setting up a public Page for your small business is as simple as visiting facebook.com/pages/create.php, selecting a category that describes your business and filling out a few basic details, such as the name of your business and, if applicable, its address. Facebook will then send you to a template of your Page, which you can spruce up with a profile photo, further details such as hours (see Info tab on left-hand sidebar). You can also identify additional Page administrations (see Info > Manage Admins), add more multimedia and events (Info > Apps) and adjust the settings to control how users can contribute to your Page (Info > Manage Permissions). It’s also a good time to post your first status update welcoming fans to your Page. You can share your updates with everyone, or target by location or language — a great option if you run a business in multiple locations. After your Page is set up, you’ll want to invite your friends to “like” your Page. Once you’ve amassed 25 fans, you’ll be able to set up a vanity URL, e.g. facebook.com/mashable. Go to the Username page, select the Page name from the dropdown menu and then write in the name you’d like to use. Keep in mind that you can’t change the URL for a Page once you confirm. There a number of apps to help you customize your page beyond the standard layout, which can be found in the Applications Directory. There, you’ll find apps that will let you create polls, add more content to your Info tab, offer coupons, showcase your YouTube videos and more. Once you’re feeling confident about the look of your Page, your next step, Buddy Media CEO Michael Lazerow suggests, is to leverage all of your owned media assets — your mailing list, e-mail newsletter and signature, store window, website, business cards, etc. — to grow your fan base. Let them know you’re there, and provide an immediate incentive for them to connect, such as a discount or giveaway. “This will increase your conversions significantly,” Lazerow says. “Since your Page is a ghost town at this point, you need to give people an incentive to connect at the onset. The best way to do that is to give them a ‘thank you.’” As you build up your fan base, you’ll want to provide a stream of interesting content that will entertain and engage your fans. Anna Strahs, the owner of a gluten-free bakery in Richmond, VA, attributes half of her business to Facebook. She says she keeps fans coming back for more by posting pictures of the items she’s baked that day. “When we post pictures of specific items, we immediately get orders for those items,” she says — and it’s no wonder, because they look delicious. Strahs says she will also post little quizzes in exchange for free baked goods, which winners can pick up at one of two farmers market locations two days each week. Her advice? Post often and make the posts count. She emphasizes that beautiful images with contextual captions go a long way. “The whole point is to get people to comment and interact with your Page so it shows up in others’ newsfeeds,” she explains. It’s also important to keep content fresh, update in an authentic voice and to evolve your Facebook strategy over time. Remember to keep track of analytics on your Insights page to see what kinds of posts performance best in terms of engagement. And seek feedback directly from your fans. Are you posting too little or too often? What kinds of things would they like to see? You can target users in your immediate area by gender, age, alma mater, employer, and even those who “like” your competition. You could also target users on their birthdays, offering them a free ice cream cone, for instance, if they stop by your store that day. You can also target existing fans with coupons and other incentives to encourage them to stop by your retail location or place an order. Facebook also has a Sponsored Stories product that enables you to reach the friends of your current fans. In your advertisement, a user will see that one of their friends has endorsed your company, essentially enabling a fan to market on your behalf. As you grow your fanbase and look for new customer acquisition strategies, you may want to look intoFacebook Deals, which lets you reward fans for checking in to your retail location using Facebook Places, and thereby notifying all of their friends that they stopped by. You might also want to consider working with one of Facebook’s preferred app developers to further build out your Facebook Page with customized modules, such as appointment bookings or integrated e-commerce opportunities. You could even look into advertising opportunities with major game developers such as Zynga, which has partnered with large and small businesses alike to advertise products to its large userbase. What other tips do you have for business owners who are just getting started on Facebook? Let us know in the comments.
It’s no secret: U.S. consumers continue to spend increasing amounts of time on Facebook. Consequently, marketers — lured by Facebook’s suite of highly targeted marketing products and the site’s smooth ability to spread information across networks of friends — are investing increasing amounts of capital in the platform.
1. Set Up Your Facebook Page
2. Invite Your Friends
3. Customize Your Page
4. Convert Your Existing Customers Into Likes
5. Engage
6. Advertise
Once you’ve converted most of your existing customer base into Facebook fans, you’ll want to start reaching others through targeted Facebook ads, which is still the most effective method for increasing your number of “likes,” says Maureen Mullen, chief researcher at luxury think tank L2.
Additional Resources
Series Supported by Global Strategic Management Institute
5 Small Business Tips for an Uncertain Economic Climate
When looking at the U.S. economy, the only thing that can be said with certainty is that we are in a period of extremeuncertainty. Consumer confidence hit a 30-year low as consumer spending hit a record high for the year. Wall Street is announcing record corporate profits while main street is suffering. And corporate CEOs are receiving massive incomes at a time when the country has unacceptably high unemployment rates. We have entered the Bermuda Triangle of economic indicators, where our economic compass has gone haywire. The U.S. stock market has entered a period of extreme volatility. Stock indexes lost over 5% of their value the day after S&P’s debt downgrade, only to fully bounce back a few days later. Eventually, these extreme market fluctuations will subside. Until that occurs, however, the market’s volatility will ripple through the economy with very real, albeit uneven, force. These wild fluctuations in the stock market are causing consumers to tighten their spending, thus causing increased pressure on small businesses. While large companies can weather the storm by dipping into cash reserves or discounting prices, the neighborhood business has no such buffer. Small businesses, already squeezed for operating capital by vendors and lenders, will need to adopt methods to bring stability to an otherwise unstable and uncertain landscape. Here are five such tips for doing so. Although banks are hesitant to provide small businesses with access to capital, there is an alternative form of financing available — trade credit. By asking for longer payment terms such as 60, 90 or even 120 days, a small business can turn their receivables into a form of operating capital. Facebook and Twitter are not just for fun; they are also immensely powerful business tools for marketing and customer outreach. Even better, they are free. Chances are, your customers are already on these networks, which is why you need to be there too. Heed Seth Godin’s comment that “five thousand people who want to hear your message are more valuable than five million who don’t.” Rather than cast a wide and perhaps ineffective marketing net, employ Facebook and Twitter to target your audience directly and inexpensively. Economic uncertainty often compels companies to reduce all expenses, but some cuts will prove more expensive in the long run. For example, as a cost savings, your competitors may be skimming on customer service. You should resist the impulse to do the same. Remember, it’s generally more expensive to acquire new customers than to keep existing ones. Furthermore, when others are cutting the quality of customer care, improvements to your service will get your company noticed. In order increase traffic to your business (both online and off), seek out web directories that are free or where registration is relatively inexpensive. Google Places offers a free and useful directory of businesses. Bing,CityGrid and other business directories offer similar services through which consumers can learn about your company. Apply for a credit card under the name of your business as opposed to your own name. Building a business credit history distinct from your personal credit will enable your business to qualify for better payment terms, credit lines, loans and other forms of capital. Keep in mind that banks and other lenders will not loan to a business if lacks sufficient credit history, so if you haven’t established credit card and checking accounts under your business’ name, now is the time. Over time, the switch will provide the double benefit of building up your business credit while protecting you from having to give personal guarantees. Image courtesy of Flickr, mikeleeorg 
Jeff Stibel is CEO of Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp. He was previously president and CEO of Web.com and general manager of web services at United Online. He currently serves on the board of directors for The Search Agency,EdgeCast and Autobytel, as well as on academic boards for Tufts University and Brown University.
1. Request Better Payment Terms
2. Social Networking
3. Improve Customer Service
4. Use Online Directories
5. Separate Your Personal from Your Business Credit
September 08, 2011 by
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
4 Tools for Building a Business Mobile App
In a world where there’s always “an app for that,” more small businesses see the value in creating their own mobile apps. The technical know-how necessary to develop an impressive app and the cost of hiring a professional developer, however, have discouraged the production of many would-be branded applications. Affordable do-it-yourself alternatives give all companies — even those with minimal tech expertise — a way to create their own apps. Even the code-illiterate can build passable apps using these four new platforms. Bizness Apps focuses on industry-specific features. If you’re building an app for a restaurant, for instance, its builder might suggest that you add a menu and a specials feature. If you’re building an app for a gym, it might recommend a weekly workout planner. It’s a difficult platform on which to customize beyond color choices, but it’s a tool that’s incredibly easy to use. Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Android, HTML5 Price: $39 per month for the iPhone app plus $10 per month for an iPad, Android or HTML5 app. MobiFlex, while not the prettiest of the app creators, will integrate with back-end data sources and incorporates functions like the phone’s camera, speech recognition and GPS into its native apps. There’s a better chance of creating and releasing a useful app with these features, but users also have a steeper learning curve than some of its competitors. Platforms: Android and iOS Price: A one-time setup fee of $99 plus a monthly fee of $25 for up to 50 users and two pages. If your main objective for creating an app is to distribute content, AppMakr might be a good choice. Publishers such as The Atlantic and Harvard Business Review have made apps using the platform. Other than adding content through multiple RSS feeds, uploading a photo gallery and sending push notifications, its code-free apps can’t do much. One appealing aspect for content creators, however, is the option to serve ads through several networks. iSites, Swebapps and App Co offer similar approaches for content distribution apps. Platforms: iOS Price: Free Red Foundry offers options for the intermediate coder and newbie app builder alike. More advanced users can choose to design their apps with an xml-based coding system instead of using the startup’s template. RSS feeds are the focus of the free version of the product’s point-and-click app builder, though it’s easy to add other extras like photo galleries, maps, social feed and commerce options like a Paypal donate button. What’s most obviously distinct about the platform is its test-as-you go app,Viz. After you load the program onto your phone, you can use it to test your app as you build it. The platform also makes widgets that show analytics, social activity and push notifications from your app that you can add to your desktop. Platforms: iOS products Price: Basic apps are free; more advanced options start at $39 per month. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, izusek
1. Bizness Apps
2. Mobiflex
3. AppMakr
4. Red Foundry
