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Share Good article. It will be interesting to see how FB navigates through the IPO process - they have already backed away from it once. Once the hype - and you know there will be hype - quiets down, FB will be like any other public company that has to answer to shareholders and users/customers.
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If you are using Facebook to build your small business you need to act now!
In my humble opinion, there has never been a more important time to cut your dependence on large social media platforms for business promotion and customer relationships.
Written Jan 29, 2012, read 2500 times since then.
It is my strong belief that the Facebook IPO will affect the truly small businesses that have come to depend on them for revenue in a very negative way.
I have coached my clients to tread lightly when promoting themselves via Facebook and other global social media sites from the very beginning. The reason is, I’ve been in sales and marketing my entire adult life (and I’m over 50). I have worked for large and small companies. Been through 2 major “hostile takeovers” when working for Fortune 500 companies and I’ve seen what happens when a company decides to go public (or even just bring in venture capital for that matter). I worked for 2 technology companies that were “pre-IPO” and both of them failed miserably before they could make their initial stock offering.
I share this background with you so you know I’m probably not just blowing smoke.
The thing is, when a company goes public, they are really no longer in control of their own destiny. They answer to their shareholders. That means that it’s no longer primarily about customer service (not that I ever thought it was with Facebook) but it’s about profits! The bigger the better!!!
That means, the company is going to be under more pressure than ever to make money on the businesses that have been enjoying a “free ride” using Facebook to develop new and lasting relationships with customers.
We’ve seen a lot of this over the last year. The changes FB has made under the guise of “improving the user interface” have made it a LOT more difficult for a business to get in front of “fans” without paying for ads. Facebook has really tried to separate communications from businesses from where the real action is – the individuals “news feed”.
I recently had to help a client that is starting a pet rescue figure out how to create a personal profile for her business because she found that her communications with the donors and supporters were virtually impossible using the “Page” she set up. Of course, as I told her, it won’t take Facebook long to stop these workarounds.
What you can do now to be ahead of the Facebook money grab if you have been depending on Facebook to build relationships:
- Know who your target audience is and how they will look for your products, services or solutions.
- Consider hiring a branding professional. We recommend Nora Richardson.
- If you don’t already have an informative up-to-date, website get one. If you don’t have the money to hire a developer – build your own. There are many free tools available these days that you can start with and then upgrade to a more professional solution later. Content and communication tools are more important than fancy graphics and other bells and whistles (with the exception of the tools noted below)! Many of today’s website builders offer professional themes and templates right out of the box that you can customize a little and make them your own.
- Make sure your new website includes the tools to interact with your customers. At minimum you should have:
- an integrated blog. This makes it easy for you to post fresh content frequently and allows your readers to subscribe so they know when you’ve posted.
- an easy to use “get our news by email” and an RSS Feed feature
- an easy to use “share” tool (make it easy for them to click and post to their social media sites – at least Facebook and Twitter). This will get your news in front of people on social media sites in the best way possible. It’s like an instant recommendation!
- Have a call to action! (We are starting to integrate “click to call” and “Live Chat” on sites for our clients.)
- Get your free QR Code(s) and use it (them) in all of your marketing materials. (QR stands for Quick Response). These are those funny looking boxes that people can hold their phone up to and it takes an action – you can even have one that puts your phone number on their phone where they can call or add you to their contacts. These are great for websites! QR codes can be used to take someone to a special page on your website, or even generate at text message to the user.
- Announce your new website and communication tools to everyone on your friend lists! Tell them you’re not going to be as active on public social media sites but you have made it easy and fun for them to keep up with you and share your news on their own profiles. Make it better to come see you on your turf!
In summary, you can’t please 800 million people, in fact most of us wouldn’t even be able to serve 800 million people. Don’t invest your hard earned time and money in a product that will never have your best interest at heart – these large social networking sites will eventually be overrun by your large competitors with deep pockets. Just like television was.
By thinking ahead and being proactive you can continue to hold your own on the internet but don’t wait too long, it is already getting harder and harder for us to get our clients page one Google rankings and even being on page one does not guarantee revenue.
The internet is maturing, it will be like other networking and advertising opportunities, people will get tired of being overwhelmed and start to think locally. If you are an early adapter you will be there for them when they come looking for you.
Search Engine Optimization expert and website developer Harmony Coburn is a self made success story and founder of Coburn Enterprises (http://coburnenterprises.com). Harmony focuses her expertise in helping TRULY small businesses make the most out of thei
Learn more about the author, Harmony Coburn.
Comment on this article
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Posted by Harmony Coburn, Vancouver, Washington |Jan 30, 2012 Hi Mark thanks for the comment. Interesting thought. Even if they don't actually do it - look at the free advertising they're getting (again, I am dumbfounded at how the media has literally given over their success to Facebook with their "follow us on facebook" constants) - If I wasn't totally aware of the fact that his whole success was literally an "accident" that grew into a success, I would like to give Zuckerberg credit for his "savvy marketing skills". But if you listen to his story it is clear this is really a case of being in the right place at the right time. I don't think anyone could have done a better job at scamming other people into building a successful business for them if they had tried!
I hope people reading my articles about the "evils of depending on Facebook" don't misconstrue my warnings as a lack of respect for Facebook! I do give them credit. They certainly ran the ball to touchdown once it was handed to them!
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Posted by Brian Mattocks, Newark, Delaware |Jan 31, 2012 I Disagree. Did Google's IPO ruin them?
Of course facebook will have a duty to its shareholders, but that duty can only be executed if it continues to have an active and vibrant user base.
If you need a canary in the coal mine - look to see if major media is pulling ads/pages from facebook. They are still posting content to pages. People are still sharing content. You simply need to look at a political candidate to see how effective this is - and will continue to be.
Also "when a company goes public, they are really no longer in control of their own destiny" is not true.
The sky is not falling.
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Posted by Harmony Coburn, Vancouver, Washington |
Jan 31, 2012 Hi Brian, I'm sorry you interpreted this as a "sky is falling" article. In the end, your comment seems to support the point of my article - Facebook will be a winning medium for DEEP POCKET ADVERTISERS.
This "sky is falling" article is not in any way saying Facebook will fail to deliver to their user base or to their target market (those deep pocket advertisers). What I am saying is the TRULY SMALL BUSINESS will not be able to win in this medium for much longer.
There was a time when local truly small businesses could afford to advertise on television too.
My point is not to dump Facebook or any other social media. For goodness sakes, use what you can wherever you can! My point is to understand the limits to what it can do for you and not make yourself vulnerable to these companies. if you don't have deep pockets these are my recommended actions to avoid a crisis in the future when Facebook and the others make it impossible for the little guy to leverage their services.
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Posted by Mark Cline, Sierra Vista, Arizona |Jan 31, 2012 Over the Christmas break I read several articles with predictions of what lay ahead for the web and social media. More than one prognosticator said "this is the year everyone wants social media to pay."
Of course they weren't talking about IPOs, they meant everyone is getting anxious to see some ROI on all that effort and money social media has sucked up.
Things are always evolving on the web and sometimes famously wrong moves are made.
Will the new FB with deep pockets do even more to help us connect/reconnect with friends or will those amazing dollars the IPO generates lead a relatively passive user base to say "hey, those guys just made a ton of money off me and now they want even more."
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Posted by Nora Richardson, Charleston, South Carolina |Feb 01, 2012 Thank you for the surprise, Harmony. I was just casually reading and enjoying your article when BAM, I see my name.
All your numbered points are exactly right. I was just coaching one of my clients on the importance of numbers 3-4 (up to date website and website tools).
You touched on it but really didn't mention the biggie...a bunch of the free sites rely on Flash. And although Flash is pretty (and from a graphics standpoint, sexy)...it won't run on iPhones and iPads so it isn't practical. Unless of course you only want to hit half your target audience.
Thank you again for the shout out! I appreciate it greatly. You are going to tire of hearing this from me, but you are such a nice, giving person. I am so glad we met right here on Biznik.
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Posted by Harmony Coburn, Vancouver, Washington |
Feb 01, 2012 Nora, thank you for making the point about flash! As you know, I won't do flash websites or even add flash to website for the exact reason you mention. But I have seen some fabulous "sexy" sites built in flash - the good news is with jQuery things are starting to look "almost" as good as flash.
Thank you for the positive feedback, but I don't want people to get the wrong idea - I'm no saint! I sought out a business relationship with you because I liked what I read here on Biznik and then on your website and blog. You inspired my respect and I reached out to you. I was then doubly pleased because we found we have a lot in common in the way we approach business and life! I am finding there are a lot of people here on Biznik that I am proud to be associated with.
It is nice to be a part of a community where even when we don't see eye to eye we are willing to listen to each other. (I'm thinking back to the occupy dialogues that were running awhile back).
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Posted by Brian Mattocks, Newark, Delaware |
Feb 01, 2012 Deep pocket is relative. Cost per impression is pennies on the dollar. Besides that, the relationship management skills are what sets people apart in social media, not the flat out dollar spend.
In short, good behavior will continue to win in the marketplace. There's a place for advertising but that always had marginal results to referral building and relationship management.
Facebook will not win by interfering in the relationship building aspect of the service.
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Posted by Harmony Coburn, Vancouver, Washington |
Feb 01, 2012 Very good point on the cpi. And you are right, the relationship management is critical. Most of my clients have limited time and resources. They don't have staff to manage these relationships so it's about putting their time and limited budgets in the places where they will benefit the most. If you don't take care of your foundation, and build your house on someone else's property, you will never really own your own home. Thus, managing the relationships via your own website and encouraging those people that are already doing business with you to promote you by "sharing" that website seems to be the best use of the business's limited resources.
But I agree, if a company has a team of people to keep up with all of the different social media outlets, I would make sure they spent some time on FB! I don't think you and I disagree, I think we just come at Facebook from a totally different perspective. I have to help my truly small businesses determine, not only the best use of their small budgets, but their time as well. If we set up a blog for them and it feeds to Facebook, Twitter, Linkied in and Biznik, they can reach more people than they will reach by focusing on just one of those sites. Having a feed from facebook on your web page encourages people to leave your page where you have a one on one relationship opportinity - my point is, not to abandone the medium, just use it the right way.
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Posted by Matt Brennan, Aurora, Illinois |Feb 01, 2012 Hi Harmony, I think you have some good advice for businesses setting up their branding strategy. It's important for them to develop a wide base, that they can use to drive traffic.
I do think that B2C businesses will do just fine, however. As long as you are producing content of interest, customers will react. The risk to any social media platform is that you are playing in someone else's sandbox. That's true for any social media platform.
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Posted by Harmony Coburn, Vancouver, Washington |
Feb 01, 2012 Hi Matt - thank you for taking the time to read and comment. You are so right - content is and probably always be the most important part of competing on the WWW (I guess really in any venue). As we've all seen at one time or another, even an ugly website or obnoxious business associate can bring in the business if they provide good information and can deliver as promised.
To everyone else, I apologize! I didn't show due dilligence on my last post to check for typos... just so you know, I know that abandon does not have an 'e' at the end :-D.
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Posted by Kimberly Gauthier, Marysville, Washington |Feb 02, 2012 It looks like I'm in a good place. I'm a blogger so I have a site, I have social networking icons, I know my target audience, and I've just started working on my branding.
Thanks for this informative article. I'm working to treat my blogging as a business and appreciate these type of articles.
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Posted by Harmony Coburn, Vancouver, Washington |
Feb 02, 2012 Good job Kimberly! The only recommendation I would make is to change your social media buttons to sharing instead of driving traffic away from your site to send them to those social media sites.
You can have the same nice social media look but use them to get people to share your site with their friends and thereby increase traffic to YOUR site not drive people away from your blog to go look at your twitter/facebook/google plus pages. The whole point is this, you've got their undivided attention ON your website, don't encourage them to go away and look someplace else. DO make it easy for them to "share" your cool content.
Note that even here on biznik, right below the last post, you will find the "share" buttons - not "visit us on" buttons... that's what I'm talkin' about!
Share buttons make it easy for people to post your content on their social media sites without making them go read about you somewhere else....
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Posted by Chas Wyatt, Gladstone, Oregon |Feb 02, 2012 This article certainly cuts across the grain of most articles about FB, especially in light of all the hype about the IPO. Your tip to Kimberly about the share buttons is very valuable. While FB is growing substantially in India, other parts of Asia and Africa, it is on the decline in the U.S., Canada and U.K. I guess we will see what happens after the IPO and the hype begins to fade.
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Posted by Joel Shorey, Englewood, Colorado |Feb 02, 2012 I agree that Facebook has never had businesses interests at heart. And there was a recent survey by Pew Research that showed less than 1% of business people get their information through any kind of social media.
If you don't have a website where your potential clients can find you, you have one foot of you business in the grave.
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Posted by Rahul Gupta, Delhi, New Delhi India |
Feb 03, 2012 Facebook IPO will affect the truly small businesses
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Posted by Matthew B. Olson, Delavan, Wisconsin |Feb 04, 2012 Great post, Harmony! I agree that Nora is a go-to girl on the subject of branding. Great writing style and easy to talk to.
Your comments regarding Facebook as well as your suggestions about not putting too many eggs in one basket is spot on. This isn’t a slam on Facebook, but more understanding what the role of social media is to the rest of your business strategy. Too many businesses get hung up on driving traffic and “likes” to Facebook, but then leave them there with little to no way to convert that relationship into tangible results.
Business social media is a vehicle, not a destination. In that, your (Harmony’s) comments are critical. The most important element of a business’ social media presence is their website. It is the landing, launching, sharing, and shopping platform from which actual conversions can be made. Regardless of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Foursquare, or even Yammer—these conversations should all include a way to take it to the next level. This builds on the importance of a well thought out, executed, and utilized website.
Facebook advertising is becoming less and less favorable for small or medium sized businesses. Cost per impression and cost per click are not the key performance indicators for Facebook advertising. Cost per “Like” is what is boils down to. A number few advertisers are really assessing. Look at the percentages of clicks converting to Likes—that is the real measurement of effective Facebook advertising. Yes, you may see low CPI and PPC rates, but look at the click-thru rates and conversions into Likes. Once you’ve gotten through all of that you have to ask the most important question. “Then what?”
Again, Facebook (or social media as a whole) is just one element of a cohesive web strategy. For your online presence to really “hit the tuning fork”, your business should really be moving concurrently on multiple fronts, but always brining them “home” to your website.
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Posted by Emily Williamson, Seattle, Washington |Feb 05, 2012 My note to Kimberly-as a consumer, I look for the social media buttons you currently have on your blog in order to connect on other s.m. forums like Twitter & FB. I get annoyed when I try to follow or like a company, only to find I just shared their homepage with all my friends. My advice is to include both--buttons for users to connect with you on all your channels and "share" buttons for content sharing.
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Posted by Harmony Coburn, Vancouver, Washington |
Feb 05, 2012 Hi Emily! It is great to get a consumer's input on this! I think you make an interesting point. I would like to hear more about why you, as a consumer who has found my website where (ideally) you have lots of information on me and (again ideally) can interact with others that share an interest in my business (i.e. via a blog) would prefer to interact with my hypothetical business on a social media site?
What do you, as a consumer, need from a business website to get you to stay and interact directly as opposed to leaving to go to Facebook for example?
For me, as a self centered consumer, (after all it IS all about me right? <grin>) my feeling is that my voice will be heard more clearly if I interact with the businesses I want to patron if I am actually on their website instead of one in a sea of 800 million users trying to get their attention on their Facebook "page". That being said, I am certainly an odd duck in many ways so I would love to hear more about your perspective on this.
I see that you are a social media consultant - I wanted to learn more about you to see how we can connect, but the site on your profile takes me to a sort of directory. Is that your website or is there somewhere else we can learn about your ideas and concepts on social media? Social Media is such a large subject, I believe all opinions, ideas and insights are of value and since you are a social media consultant I'm thinking you have more great concepts to share! Please let us know where we can get more information on how you can help us all!
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Posted by Harmony Coburn, Vancouver, Washington |
Feb 05, 2012 @Matthew - thanks so much for taking the time to read and share your thoughts. I like the way you summed it up "...Facebook (or social media as a whole) is just one element of a cohesive web strategy. For your online presence to really “hit the tuning fork”, your business should really be moving concurrently on multiple fronts, but always brining them “home” to your website."
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Posted by Pam Johnson-Bennett, CCBC, Nashville, Tennessee |Feb 07, 2012 Wow, where to start with how much I've just learned both in your article and the comments. I've made myself a checklist for my website and will be re-evaluating how I've set things up.
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- Facebook IPO
- you can't serve 800 million people so why are you giving away your energy?
- social media does and don'ts. making your website work better.
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