This week I had coffee with a friend, Jason Elkins. He’s doing a program he calls 100 cups of coffee in 100 days”. While his program is a relationship building program, it makes a great marketing program, too.
He and I spoke at length about our client’s, what we’re doing for them and how that’s working. Fortunately, though we’re both internet marketers, we do entirely different stuff – so it was a great learning experience. (If you’re interested in the ‘notes’ for that meeting, subscribe at the end of this post).
One thing that is clear is that no two clients deserve the same strategy, or should I say no two clients could be successful using the same strategy. And I’d be willing to pen even for similar companies in the same strip mall. The company’s goals, strengths and weaknesses change that strategy completely.
I was amazed at the vast array of things you can do on a Facebook Fan Page these days. Jason’s team have really come up with some great ideas and new functionality. I’ve been reluctant to suggest a Facebook Fan Page to my clients, but am now rethinking that.
My reluctance comes from seeing the great number of companies that have fan pages but no real reason to do so. Without a really good purpose, and one that brings people back to the site, they could become a liability without constant posting and social interaction.
I’ll put together my notes from our meeting expressing what we learned and how you doing these things for your business. No matter what you do, the goal has to be improvement to the bottom line. No questions about that. Whether the activity is exposure, branding, networking, relationship building, sales, customer service or technical help – make sure that you’re activity is supporting the ultimate goal.
What’s the goal of your business? And can you see the little things you do supporting that ultimate goal – no matter how minute.
I think the Facebook Page should have a completely different utility than the website – but also link to the website should you desire the other purpose.
For instance you go to the Threadless Facebook page to vote on new T-shirt designs, whereas, you go to the website to buy t-shirts.
I believe P.E.T.S. Inc is the page where you load up the photo of the bug and the Pets people tell you what it is and how to get rid of it. Their website is for calling them, getting hours of operation, etc. . .
If it’s just a teaser to get you to the site, I bet you the fans don’t come more than once, really.
I’ve seen some really nice Facebook Fan (or “Like”) Pages and some ho hum pages, as well. The really good ones have nice design, interesting information and a reason to click and go to the website of the the Page owner. From what I can gather, the page is just the “teaser” to go to the website.
Alternately, there are the Groups which can center around communities of people with the same interest. My only beef with either the Facebook Page or Group is that an individual really needs to be proactive to keep up with the changes. Yeah, I know there are ways to send out updates (Groups) or even direct mail (Pages) but that can get real spammy in a hurry.
Still, if it’s a nice page with enough of a pull to the the owner’s website, it’s very cool.