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I put my family business on Facebook. Here’s what happened.

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Re: I put my family business on Facebook. Here’s what happened.

#41

Post by lifeisstillgood »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #28
citricsquid wrote: post #12

> everything I read about maximising your web presence and impact told me that SMEs must integrate and embrace social media, especially Facebook This is where he went wrong; signing up to Facebook because a book said a business needs a Facebook page to be successful online is the wrong approach. If you can't explain why you're making a Facebook page it probably isn't going to work, even if you have no knowledge of Fa…

Exactly, case in point: My local sandwich deli has now decided to go all "social media". They have a big sign on the counter saying "please like us on facebook" and when you buy a sandwich the staff ask you if you are on facebook. Something about the whole approach just feels wrong in a way I can't quite put my finger on. It just feels like them asking me to do what is basically a meaningless mechanical chore. I've b…

Auto generate a coupon / QR code for everyone who likes you Then if any of their friends uses that coupon code (by flashing their iPhone at the till) then that original person gets ten points on their loyalty card

I think frankly that a social graph is best employed using graphing friendly rewards - mostly that is the social dopamine thing in our brains, but affiliates also work

In fact - is this being done?

Re: I put my family business on Facebook. Here’s what happened.

#42

Post by rehack »

conradfr wrote: post #34
citricsquid wrote: post #12

> everything I read about maximising your web presence and impact told me that SMEs must integrate and embrace social media, especially Facebook This is where he went wrong; signing up to Facebook because a book said a business needs a Facebook page to be successful online is the wrong approach. If you can't explain why you're making a Facebook page it probably isn't going to work, even if you have no knowledge of Fa…

"Likes" are almost as meaningless as karma is on reddit. Especially as there is no dislikes. What do 30, 1000 or 10000 likes tell about your company ? At what point do they measure success ?

I think, if as a business you have not bought your likes, then they do imply something.

For example, some of our competitors have around 10 times to 50 times the likes as us. But the difference in reactions to a post we might make is no where as much - they could be just 1.5 times to 2 times or even less.

Also, businesses indulging in purchasing likes, to showcase their fan base(really?) has perhaps contributed a lot to FB Ad purchase so far. So the past year or so, can be called the 'like' wave of FB/Social. The future is interesting!

Re: I put my family business on Facebook. Here’s what happened.

#43

Post by nhebb »

rmATinnovafy wrote: post #29

Worst prt is he may be done with marketing after such experience. He will miss out on the truth. Which is that direct marketing will help get the results he wants. A pity.

Direct marketing doesn't get discussed much on HN and realted posts don't seem to get much traction (c.f. http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=direct+mark...). I think it's a topic that could use a could hand-holding tutorial for startups. How to select a DM agency, how to build a target mailing list, and so forth.

Re: I put my family business on Facebook. Here’s what happened.

#44

Post by leeoniya »

i bet he will get more business from this one free HN mention than with anything he can do on FB, especially in his business. not all business models lend themselves to social marketing, not by a long shot. i'm a developer for a US floor heating manufacturer and we recently started the whole social thing, other than people posting reviews on our fb page and liking us (which is good), there have been no direct sales...it's just a bad fit.

Re: I put my family business on Facebook. Here’s what happened.

#47

Post by mbesto »

lmm wrote: post #24
jrockway wrote: post #17

Clearly something is not right, so I decide to view the profiles of all those who clicked the ads. Whoa, what? Advertisers can see my Facebook profile if I click their link? Talk about oversharing...

Without wishing to be rude, have you not been paying attention? This is what facebook /does/.

First, there's two other comments that would say otherwise. Can anyone definitively say whether this is true or not? I'm curious as well.

Second, your question doesn't add to the discussion (thus a downvote). Mind your manners please.

Re: I put my family business on Facebook. Here’s what happened.

#48

Post by ajays »

Something's amiss in the article.

First there's this: "Result? Two! €160 quid for two clicks, each of whom looked at two site pages."

Then: "Clearly something is not right, so I decide to view the profiles of all those who clicked the ads. They hit one common spot – they were all in the UK. But they were aged from 13 to about 70, many were unemployed or in education, we even had a Muslim fundamentalist who is very concerned about things in Pakistan. Lots and lots of doting mothers with FB pages full of cutesy little life mottoes. "

Wait: is it 2 clicks, or 200 clicks??!?

Re: I put my family business on Facebook. Here’s what happened.

#49

Post by jmmcd »

tomp wrote: post #45

> we even had a Muslim fundamentalist who is very concerned about things in Pakistan I'm never clicking another FB ad again - it's kinda scary how much information the advertisers can get about their fans!

As mentioned by others in these comments, it's when you "like" something that the owner of that page can see who you are. If you click an ad they can't. I think.

Re: I put my family business on Facebook. Here’s what happened.

#50

Post by lwhi »

ajays wrote: post #48

Something's amiss in the article. First there's this: " Result? Two! €160 quid for two clicks, each of whom looked at two site pages. " Then: " Clearly something is not right, so I decide to view the profiles of all those who clicked the ads. They hit one common spot – they were all in the UK. But they were aged from 13 to about 70, many were unemployed or in education, we even had a Muslim fundamentalist who is very…

The first refers to people who visited the website from the Facebook page.
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