Google, Bing, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare, Yelp, Blogging, SEO, SEM, keywords, backlinks, citations, and on and on. Where do you start? How do you know when your finished? Well, you have taken the first step, research!
With all of the pressures of running a small business, you may feel that social media is just for kids and a complete waste of your time. But what if I were to tell you that Facebook has over 900 million active clients that could be reached daily with free advertising? That no longer sounds like kid stuff and is exactly why businesses need a Facebook page. There are so many ways to reach potential customers with a Facebook page that a good business owner wouldn’t dream of missing the opportunities. Major corporations, non-profit organizations, and even bands and other celebrities use Facebook to broaden the reach of their advertising. Best of all, when you join Facebook they give back. Five things that are offered to any business on Facebook are:
1. Promotion
It is very important to realize that there is a difference between Facebook profiles and Facebook pages. Profiles are reserved for individuals and have limited “friend” capacity. Pages are specifically designed to promote businesses and other organizations with a capacity for unlimited subscribers. In fact, Facebook policy specifically prohibits businesses from maintaining profiles.
2. Advertising
Advertisers have long known that a picture is worth a thousand words. How much more is a video worth? That may be debatable, but there is no doubt that the pictures you can upload to Facebook are very effective in capturing the interest of potential customers. Add the “like” feature and you now have personal recommendations from your fans to all of their friends. You also have a subscription to allow you to keep in touch with those fans on an ongoing basis. Upload a video to demonstrate your product as effectively as a television infomercial. Make that video informative and you can teach your clients how to use your products more effectively and increase sales. Make that video funny or otherwise entertaining and your message may “go viral” and spread around the globe.
3. Reach
Another reason why businesses need a facebook page is that they are indexed outside of Facebook. That means that consumers using search engines to find products or services have the potential to find your Facebook page in their search results. Which give you one more way of being found online.
4. Growth
Facebook marketing provides a lot of free support to help you grow your business. In just four easy steps you can build your page, connect with your target audience, add great content to entice them to use your services, and influence friends of your fans to investigate your business, too. Free videos and guides will help you use Facebook to the fullest.
5. Tools
If you are not sure to whom you should target your market, Facebook has tools to help you. Business pages maintain statistics about who accesses your page. Demographic information can be invaluable to building your business.
So ultimately, the reason why businesses need a Facebook page is that there is no easier or cheaper method to engage vast numbers of people multiple times per day on their computers and on their phones without invading their privacy. Plus they are giving you excellent tools to reach more customers for free! Any business owner who asks “why” might better ask “why not?”
Need help setting up your Facebook page or marketing on Facebook properly? Call today at 715-389-1704 or email info@muellerbook.com. Garrett or Nate will meet with you face to face to put a plan together that fits your business needs and budget.
Maybe your small business has been in the family for years, or maybe you just started it up. Whatever the reason, if you don’t have a website for your business yet, you’re denying yourself potential customers. Here are four of the top reasons why small businesses should have a website .
1. Your competition is eating your lunch.
Even if your business is doing well without one, you’re still letting the competition easily grab customers that can’t find you online, and that’s just not good business. Every time potential customers get online and search for something related to your business, your competitors with a website will appear in front of them, and you won’t. These are customers that your business does not even have a chance to attract if you don’t have an online presence, and there’s no other way to avoid missing that opportunity.
2. Websites offer more to customers
Nothing sets a business apart like being easy and convenient for its customers to use. The list of functions a website can serve is almost infinite, and most of them are things that traditional advertising can’t do, or can’t do nearly as well. Your website can instantly tell a customer your location, hours, contact information, what services you offer, your prices, and anything else they could possibly need to know. Customers can also interact directly with your business from the comfort of their homes, either by purchasing goods and services or by contacting you for support.
3. Websites are more attractive than ads
No form of advertising allows you more flexibility and creativity in presenting your business to customers than a website. Websites are truly unlimited. All the information about your business can be presented at once, and potential customers can peruse it at their leisure. They don’t have to scramble to write down information they might forget or stare at a sign while they’re trying to drive. And the design of your website can reflect the style and personality of your business with any layout, color scheme and images you can imagine.
4. Social media is the future of advertising
This may just be the most important reason why small businesses should have a website. The number of people who are using services like Facebook and Twitter is tremendous and is growing every day. These platforms have revolutionized advertising. For example, Facebook offers advertising that targets users based specifically on what they might be interested in, allowing you to reach your business’s specific audience directly. And even more importantly, word of mouth communication about businesses and services now happens increasingly via social networking. Many businesses now have buttons built into their websites for users to instantly share the word about services they’ve received on Facebook and Twitter, allowing news of your business to spread across the internet without even costing you anything extra. That’s the best form of advertising there is, and as technology improves, social networking is only going to become more and more important to the way people communicate.
Ready to take your business to the next level? Give us a call today at 715-389-1704 or email info@muellerbook.com. Garrett or Nate will meet with you face to face to put a plan together that fits your business needs and budget.
When is the next big local game? Check out our sports schedule section pages 32-57 of our 2011-2012 issue. Schedules for Abbotsford WI, Auburndale WI, Colby WI, Marshfield WI, Columbus Catholic Marshfield WI, Edgar WI, Granton WI, Greenwood WI, Loyal WI, Marshfield WI, Neillsville WI, Owen WI, Withee WI, Pittsville WI, SpencerWI , and Stratford WI. For the following sports: baseball, basketball, cross country, football, Softball, swimming, track, volleyball, wrestling, golf, hockey, soccer, gymnastics, tennis. Also, Green Bay Packer and Wisconsin Badger Schedules!
Looking ahead to 2012-2013… our theme will be “Made in Central Wisconsin”. We will be highlighting manufacturers of all sizes. If you, your friends, or family make a product in Central WI please email the company name and contact names, product they produce, and a contact number to info@muellerbook.com.