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

thejournal.ie

101–110 of 115 posts

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

#101
post #52
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…

Actually, I find it somewhat concerning that advertisers can see the exact profile page of those clicking on their ads. Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

You can't. He's confused.

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

#102
In the beginning "likes" had value because there was no incentive to lie. Now they are so gamed they've become meaningless. Couple that with the sheer number of "friends" who are little more than strangers and it's no wonder social reputation counts for very little. You get better recommendations from experts in forums - in the form of text, not scores.

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

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

We are currently in beta testing with Tenqyu

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

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

QR codes are a crock. This gimmick is already fading away as a momentary curiosity.

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

#106
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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. Personally, I dislike this sort of approach. If I need to like something to get something in return (sometimes a coupon or a download), I usually un-like the thing immediately thereafter and try to scrub all traces of it from my wall. Yes, this is going against the spirit of…

Not to mention the pathetic lack of self respect. Begging people to "like" you?

Sad.

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

#107
post #58

I can certainly understand the author's frustration with Facebook advertising, and for what he's selling, it does make more sense to use Google than Facebook or Twitter. I don't think that's an indictment of the site, though. Facebook and Twitter are mediums for sharing and discussion. Traditional commerce feels a bit off, at best. If you want to use them to promote a business, you have to be participating in them on…

I suppose, like everything in life, there is no "one size fits all" solution to advertising. Just because FB works for someone, it doesn't mean it'll work for everyone else (same for Google, Twitter etc) and vice versa. I wish there was a site, that had a list of online advertising success stories, and what strategies worked in each case. So if I am a 150 year old packaging business, I can simply look up businesses s…

Just because FB works for someone, it doesn't mean it'll work for everyone else

To me, the question right now is whether Facebook works for anyone.

I'm genuinely interested, because I've seen media-reported stories of many different kinds and sizes of organisations experimenting with advertising with Facebook, and I honestly can't recall a single one that had a happy ending. I realise that, as they say, the plural of anecdote is not data, but anecdotes can certainly suggest a pattern worth investigating.

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

#108

> 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…

I've been wracking my brains to think of how I would try and exploit social networking if I was running that business but so far I have come up empty.

IME, social networks are awesome for raising publicity if you can get your real fans to tell their friends about you, if whatever you do is something that will be genuinely interesting to those with common interests (which of course friends tend to have). It's a networking effect, a real-time version of good old word-of-mouth advertising, which has always been by far the best kind to have.

Weaker personal actions such as likes, follows, mailing list subscriptions and all that jazz might have some benefit, but I don't believe it's anything like as much. I'm thinking this is because these are personal expressions of interest, but in reality they probably have little if any networking power.

I lack faith that any sort of paid Facebook advertising will even have a positive RoI, based on a few small-scale experiments that I personally know about and on media reporting of larger organisations not doing any better. I suspect a lot of people treat these ads much as they would treat junk mail: just another form of spam to be auto-ignored, and probably subject to banner blindness by now.

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

#109
Unfortunately, he lacked basic marketing strategy. Before determining what platform to be on (and the Internet and social media is not all Facebook) you need to understand your audience and your objectives. For a traditional B2B industry, Facebook is not the first place to be (let alone a page per product line). If he wanted to be on social media (and first getting his web presence in order should be priority), LinkedIn is a much better place to be. But, more importantly, he should have hired a marketing strategist (a real one, not some "guru" kid who knows how to use Facebook but someone who understands marketing fundamentals) to work

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

#110
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Personally, I dislike this sort of approach. If I need to like something to get something in return (sometimes a coupon or a download), I usually un-like the thing immediately thereafter and try to scrub all traces of it from my wall. Yes, this is going against the spirit of…

Not to mention the pathetic lack of self respect. Begging people to "like" you? Sad.

It's just a codeword, as you are well aware. "Please add yourself to our unsolicited mailing list", would at least be honest.
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