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Social Media Friend or Foe? Archives - Search Engine Marketing & Optimization
A blog for truly small businesses

Social Media Friend or Foe?

This is IMPORTANT NEWS for small businesses and website owners

If you are spending time marketing your products on Facebook you should STOP NOW and read this!

Attention Business / Website owners: As I have said all along, FACEBOOK IS NOT YOUR FRIEND – they DO NOT WANT YOU TO BUILD TRAFFIC ON YOUR OWN WEBSITE THEY ONLY WANT YOU TO BUILD TRAFFIC FOR THEM!!!

As of September 30th 2011  you’ll no longer be able to send an update to fans using Facebook Messages. (for example, your blog posts will no longer show up as status updates).

We want you to connect with your audience in the most effective ways possible, and updates that go to Facebook Messages may end up unseen in the “Other” folder.

For those of you that say “well gee so what,it’s a free service” keep this in mind – if you focus your marketing energy

building interaction on FACEBOOK and not YOUR WEBSITE you will be providing an excellent place for your competitors to advertise!

If you do not have an interactive website then figure out how to get one – start telling your Fan Page fans to subscribe to your WEBSITE NOT YOUR FACEBOOK FAN PAGE.

Make it easy for them to get your website posts by email instead (see our home page).

Get updates on Search Engine Optimization and marketing in your email!

We will be dropping our pages within the next 6 months and working with our clients to do the same. As an SEO Expert I cannot, in good concience let my clients invest their hard earned marketing dollars building a place for someone else to get rich! PLEASE SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE!!!!

Add your content from your website automatically to Facebook

Want to share your website content on your Facebook profile or Fan Page but not click the “share” button every time?

No problem – there is a cool application called RSS Graffiti that simplifies the process. Of course, you have to know what your “feed” link is. Most blogs and many websites (including the ones we build) have this feature available by default – it just needs to be configured. You may need a little bit of help figuring that part out – talk to your webmaster. However, once you get the feed link you just sign up (for free) with RSS Graffiti and their tool will walk you through the steps to get that content to show up on your Facebook page automatically every time you update the conten on that link. You can learn more about RSS Graffiti here: http://apps.facebook.com/rssgraffiti/

Another way to use Facebook instead of letting Facebook use you…

While the big boys are spending big money to set up shop and keep visitors on Facebook, spending money for ads on your Facebook Fan Page and Facebook Profile pages you can be driving traffic away from Facebook to your website!

At least until Facebook figures out that we’ve got their number :-D. The beauty is, you don’t even have to have a Facebook account (at least not yet) to do this!

How? It’s pretty simple really… add a Facebook “Like” or “Share” button to your site.

 How easy this is will depend on how your website is built but a “Like” button can be added to just about any website if you are allowed to add html code to your pages.

If you would like to do this for your own website you can create the button here: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like. You can create one button that is a link to your primary URL and insert it in all or any pages on your website or you can create a button for each link you want people to share on your website.

If you have one of our dynamic content sites, we can add a feature to your website that will automatically add “like” and/or “share” buttons to your blog posts or pages.

Need more help? Give us a call at (888) 595 3098 or visit our Contact Us page.

We’ve stated the “social shopping” problem now we’ll share the solution

With companies like Best Buy “setting up shop” on Facebook my clients are in somewhat of a panic to compete. First of all, as I’ve said since the beginning, you cannot compete with big business on their level. If you could you wouldn’t be a “truly small business” any more – and wouldn’t need my advice.

Instead, be the best you can be and win because you are a small business that knows people buy from you because you offer better service and truly care about each individual customer. (We all know that at Best Buy and other stores like them we’re just a telephone number :-D). People shop at big stores because they are looking for the best deal. As a small retailer you are not going to have that. Instead you will have the best selection for your customers!

“Social Commerce” is going to happen – there is no way to avoid it. But instead of using the tools that are provided to “make you dependent” on Facebook (or any other social site) do the work yourself and drive your customers to your website to browse and then encourage them to “chat you up” on FB via their own profile. You can also put a “post a review” link on your site that takes them to your Google Places page and lets them post a review. Where else are you listed where people can post reviews? There are tons of local shopping sites where you can have a free listing and people can comment on your service etc – make sure you’re leveraging these free services. Granted, your site may not yet have the “rate this product” feature but you can still generate buzz on Facebook and other sites about it by introducing it as a post on your Fan page – people can still comment on Facebook about it but the link takes them to your website and doesn’t keep them on Facebook like the FB “shop” tab is designed to do.

Again, I’m not saying ditch FB – just don’t let them own you.

As I predicted – Big Business is going to own the Facebook business

Just say no to Facebook!Here is an article that supports the warnings I’ve been trying to get out to you all  –  the only businesses that will “win” on Facebook are the ones prepared to spend a lot of money (http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2010/10/stores_find_friends_on_faceboo.html ). By telling your website visitors to “follow you on Facebook” you are giving them away to your larger, better funded competitors. Even if these big box stores are not your direct competitors they ARE competing for the disposable income you want spent on YOUR products! I’m not saying don’t be on Facebook or have a link to your “page” on Facebook, at this point you almost have to, but change the rules! You can use Facebook instead of continuing to let Facebook use you. It’s not too late people – tell your friends to quit following you on Facebook and call you or text you  instead! Better yet, learn how to blog and open a dialogue on your own website with your customers. Use Facebook to bring people to your website. With today’s technology if you can make a post on Facebook you can blog on your own website I promise.

I’m not saying don’t have a Facebook page, at this point you almost “have to”. What I’m saying is be smart about it – use it to get people to your own website and keep them there. Turn your own website into a social hub. Create an environment on your own website where customers can “meet” each other and share products – give them the tools to post links on Facebook back to your website – do not do what Best Buy is doing and put all of your products on Facebook … there is no free lunch! Facebook will make you pay for the traffic you get for your products one way or another – either by charging  you a percentage of your sales or by selling advertising to your competitors…

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