I attended the Independent Payroll Providers Association Sales and Marketing Workshop in Las Vegas last week. Besides being in Vegas with the beautiful weather, visiting relatives and seeing the very awesome Beatles “Love”, a Cirque Du Soleil show, the discussions on marketing were very insightful and thought provoking.
Business IS Personal
In particular, we had a great presentation from one of the best sales trainers in the business, Jack Daly. Most notable to me was his discussion of utilizing Facebook for business. This is sure to create some differing opinions. I happen to agree with him that FaceBook is a great place to market yourself…his point being that Business IS personal.
I know many people who keep FaceBook personal and utilize LinkedIn more for their business networking/marketing activities. Jack gave some great examples of why you SHOULD use FaceBook for business marketing. He told a wonderful story of a Facebook friend of his, who he has never met, who got 12 of her friends to attend one of his seminars. At almost $800/person, this was an incredible result. He never would have gotten these other people to attend without FaceBook.
Any adult who doesn’t post embarrassing drunken pictures, or spread political or religious rants, should highly consider utilizing FaceBook as one of their marketing strategies. It gives a better ability to share, like and comment on events and posts than any other social media platform. You will get to know your business associates better and they will get to know you better.
I use FaceBook for business daily. My posts get liked, shared and commented on by my friends which gives me exposure to thousands of additional people not in my personal network. It also gives me the ability to like, share and comment on my friends posts to expose them to MY friends/family and business contacts as well.
FaceBook allows me to “check-in” to the many different events I attend giving publicity to those events and letting people know where I am networking and with whom.
As part of a multi-pronged social media marketing approach, FaceBook should play a big role in my opinion. The primary strategy is to stay Top Of Mind with my business associates as well friends/family. It provides a wonderful platform for utilizing content/educational based marketing approaches.
What are your thoughts on this approach???
Please comment below and share and/or like this post!!!
Best,
Mitch Zucker
774-218-9486 mobile
www.firewakerdevgroup.com
I for one have decided not to blend these two social media sites, keeping Facebook personal and LinkedIn for business. I share personal thoughts, political comments and personal information on Facebook that might not be appropriate for a business setting.
On the flip side I do not frequent LinkedIn on weekends or holidays leaving that more work focused.
Thanks for your input Gary. I think you point out one of the great reasons not to utilize facebook for business: the political, religious or other personal thoughts. I find myself mostly tempering my comments on facebook because I use it for both personal and business purposes. I do fall off the wagon occasionally and say what I really mean, but I generally try not to ruffle any feathers. Thanks again for your input.
I do have a Facebook business page because you can’t beat the price — FREE advertising; however, I don’t think I’ve ever received any business because of it. I rarely initiate anything on my personal page and try to avoid expressing my opinions on “hot button” topics. Unfortunately, sometimes I end up “sharing” items because I would feel guilty not doing so when they involve deep-seated convictions. Because of this, I’m afraid that Facebook may actually be losing potential clients for me.
I much prefer LinkedIn as a business vehicle.
Thanks for your input Elaine. I’m not even talking about a fb business page, but using personal page for marketing. I have a friend with a nursery in NJ. I know it’s not exactly the same, but he gets lots of business through Facebook. He posts all kind of helpful tidbits about flowers and plants. He posts pictures. He’s doing a spring countdown right now. He runs contests. You could do much the same. Tips on taking care of flowers. Pics on interesting or different looking ones. Sales your having. Reminded of upcoming holidays that gift baskets are good for. Ways to reuse the baskets. Get creative and educate and you’ll likely find more people visiting your fb page and also then visiting your store.