Today I was asked to write an article for Social850.com discussing the topic of Facebook pages for Tallahassee small businesses.  The topic centered around Fan Pages vs. Group Pages.

In March of 2009, Facebook made a few changes to the structure of their site impacting the differences between Fan Pages and Group Pages.  The core change was how people can suggest or promote their pages.  I hope this post helps to define when to use a Fan Page versus a Group Page.

FAN Pages:

Indexed by Google – Fan Pages are indexed by Google providing SEO benefits for any business looking to grow their digital footprint.

Adding Applications – Fan Pages allow the use of adding Applications or widgets that can enhance the user interaction with Fans and a Business.  A complete list of applications can be found in the Facebook Application Directory.

Strategic Updates – Fan Page updates can be sent by age, gender and location by text with hyperlinks included.

Homepage Streaming Messages – Fan Page updates will show as notifications on a fan’s homepage, but also will display as a status update in the friend stream on the homepage.

Facebook Insights – Internal Facebook system providing metrics for number of fans, unique visitors, number of reviews and total interactions.

Suggest to Friends – This new feature allows Fans to send a message to friends to suggest becoming a Fan.  This was a key feature change in March making Fan pages more viral.

Group Pages:

Group participation – Group pages can be Open, Closed, or Secret offering various levels of participation.

Bulk Invitations – Group pages can send bulk emails to friends inviting to become a member.

Threaded Conversations – Group pages offer conversations in a threaded format providing for a more organized process of publishing information about certain topics or issues.

Officers – Groups pages allow the addition of offices which can be a measure of goodwill or just for community building fun.

Not indexed by search engines.

No Applications can be used to enhance page.

Summary

Facebook Pages are primarily used to promote businesses, non-profits, celebrities and artists to Facebook users.  Facebook states that “only the official representative of an artist, business, or brand may create a Facebook Page.” In other words, Pages are intended to be an “official” web page for your organization on Facebook.

Facebook Groups can be created by anyone interested in promoting and organizing people around a specific interests or cause. All members of a group have the ability to contribute content that appears on the Group’s wall – photos, videos, discussion threads.

If you have already created a Group page and want to create a Fan page, it’s not too late.  In fact, you can send a bulk message to your Group to let them know and urge them to become a Fan! Before you make your Fan page, here is an article on The Five Elements of a Sucessful Facebook Fan Page.

Facebook Fan Page for Tallahassee Small Business using Social Media

“Craigslist, the “free classifieds” site that offers community advertising in 570 markets worldwide but charges only for a tiny percentage of its ads, will generate $100 million in revenue in 2009, the AIM Group / Classified Intelligence estimated today. That’s an increase of more than 23 percent from Craigslist’s estimated revenue of $81 million in 2008, making clear that the company continues to grow significantly while many classified advertising publishers are reporting year-over-year drops of 50 percent or more in certain categories.” by Peter M Zollman of AIMGroup

Despite the controversy surrounding Craigslist sections called “Casual Encounters” and “Erotic Services,” the fact remains that Craigslist is a peer to peer community driven web portal.  Created in 1995 by founder Craig Newmark, Craigslist has more than 20 billion page views per month and projected revenue of $100 million this year.

I think it is ironic that the Business (for sale) category is less than one inch to the right from the Casual Encounters category.  Craigslist defies all the rules of ecommerce when it comes to website design:  no banner ads; no Google Ad Sense; no big banana buttons that scream, click here.  So why is it so successful? I believe one of the central reasons for its success is the constantly updated content created by Craigslist users.

Automotive, Jobs and Real Estate are some of the top categories with large volumes of inventory.  As a Tallahassee small business digital media consultant, I have worked with automotive and real estate companies who have listed inventory and/or properties on Tallahassee Craigslist.  One of my clients who owns several rental properties has leased a property in less than one hour on Craigslist.  Another client lists their automotive inventory priced below $12,000, and receives multiple calls per day.

Similar to its cousin Ebay, the success in listing on Craigslist is photos, descriptions and multiple points of contact.  I have seen listing after listing with no pictures, poor descriptions and no phone or email listed.  Putting a link to your business website or blog is another “best practice” and allows for good web traffic tracking through tools like Google Analytics.

Tallahassee businesses posting job listings are reporting over 300 to 500 responses per listing! If you are looking to hire and are looking for a low cost alternative, Craigslist is a great resource.  Taking the time to write a good job listing, including detailed job description, educational requirements and skills needed will help reduce the number of unqualified applicants.

If you haven’t started listing your products or services on Craigslist, your competitor probably has.  One tool for monitoring Craigslist is CL Desktop.  CL Desktop is an application built on Adobe AIR.  This tool is a very well designed tool for searching and tracking listings by topic.  CL Desktop is a free application to download from Adobe AIR Marketplace.

Craigslist Social Media Monitoring Tool

Every year the Chamber recognizes small businesses for their outstanding achievements and contributions to the community at its annual Small Business Excellence Awards program.  This year’s winner of the Small Business of the Year 1-4 Employees is Confidential Shredding & Recycling.

“Confidential Shredding & Recycling, Inc. is the premier mobile document shredding service which values client’s privacy and time.  Our mobile unit is equipped with a hydraulic lift system, which instantly feeds your confidential materials directly into the shredder.  With this state of the art equipment, our bonded professionals are able to shred your sensitive materials, hands free.  The shredding process may be viewed on our security surveillance camera system.  Clients’ are then provided with a Certificate of Destruction.” csrshredding.com

CSR gets it. Do a Google search for Confidential Shredding & Recycling in Tallahassee and you will find many reasons why they are deservedly the winner.  Take one look at their digital footprint and the evidence is clear: Social Media is an essential component of their marketing strategy.

Winner Small Business of the Year 1-4 Employees:

Website: Confidential Shredding & Recycling, Inc.

Facebook Fan Page for Confidential Shredding & Recycling

Twitter: http://twitter.com/CSRShredding

Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/confidentialshredding

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/confidentialshredding

Trusteria.com: http://www.trusteria.com/csrshredding/contact

Blogger: http://csrshredding.blogspot.com

What makes CSR a winner in my book is not just the fact that they have tackled Social Media head on, but that they are very involved in the Tallahassee community.  Within the same Google search, one can see CSR’s involvement with the Tallahassee Red Cross, Keep Tallahassee Leon County Beautiful and the Children’s Home Society.

Congratulations Confidential Shredding & Recycling! I am a big fan and a follower.

Best wishes and prosperity to you and your staff!

#1 Tallahassee Small Business Leveraging Social Media

If the phrase “information is the new currency” was used to describe the emergence of technology in the late ’90s, then “social media is the new debit card” is the phrase for business 2010.    I use my debit card for just about every transaction.  Large or small it really doesn’t matter.  My bank doesn’t charge me a minimum fee for using it (although some places do).  Annoying! At the end of the day I can look at my online banking statement and see a real-time activity journal.  My weekly journal consists of visits to coffee shops, lunch expenditures, along with trips to Publix, Winn Dixie and Wal-Mart.  Anytime a transaction is made and I use my debit card, a record is created.  By looking at my online bank statements, one might be able to glean how I feel about spending money at the places I frequent during the week.

A similar assessment might be taken in regards to activities and conversations within social media.  Thousands and thousands of updates about experiences at coffee shops, restaurants and grocery stores are posted everyday.  Each of those updates/comments are recorded and posted on blogs, walls and message boards.  These digital logs are a new kind of online account statement.  Each update is an informational transaction.  The insight that could be learned by these digital statements could result in valuable assessments for a company that was paying attention.

Recently, I was preparing a Social Media proposal for a new client who requested case studies to be included in the documentation.  I came across hundreds of studies.  Surprisingly, this kind of market research has been circulating since 2005.  Everyday the conversation of how do businesses engage in social media arises, to which I reply, it’s never too late to join the conversation.  I always recommend listening and observing as a starting point.

If you are in charge of marketing at your company or you are the owner of a small business and need more convincing that Social Media is a viable means to grow your business, I am including some of the case study websites that I have found extremely helpful in attempting to reconcile the online statements of social media.

Case Studies

35 Examples of Corporate Social Media in Action

Word Of Mouth Marketing Association – Comprehensive Case Study Library

Groundswell by Forrester Research – 65 Corporate examples and 25 full case studies

Social Media Statements Tallahassee

How many people contemplate their comprehensive insurance policy or the diversity of their financial portfolio on the way to the bathroom? Why is the community bulletin board still a viable media channel for advertising? As an advertiser, you are gambling that everyone that visits that establishment will visit the restrooms. Is this cutting edge media placement?

Do you really expect someone to grab your card off the cork board on their way into the powder room? Have you ever had someone call you and say, “Yeah, I got your card off the bathroom wall at ______ and I was wondering if…” Does that really work? I guess if you want to take a shotgun blast in the dark that’s one strategy.

I love Sprint’s idea of media placement. You’re sitting in the theater getting ready to watch a movie and the trailers are showing. The next trailer is about a monkey trying to negotiate director credits and theme song input with the movie producers. The punch line is: “It takes many calls to make a movie, but only one to ruin it. Please turn off your cell phone.” Brilliant. The message is creative and the delivery is relevant. Nice job, Sprint.

As a local business, you don’t have to have a Sprint size budget to craft relevant, creative messages. Social media channels are becoming one of the largest growing communication methods. The traditional media placement questions are who, where, and when to send your message.  In social media, the question is how does your message interact with the audience? Unlike the intrusions of traditional advertising, relevant messages can be engaged with people who are already talking about that specific topic or interest.

A couple of things to consider when interacting inside social media channels:

Remember, it’s social – All business and no play is no fun! Social media is a two-way communication channel. Keep that in mind and put away the bullhorn strategy. Social media is like being invited to a global cocktail party; there are plenty of opportunities to connect.

Listen before you speak – Before you jump into a conversation, it’s always good to make sure you’re on topic. (ex: Tweetdeck, Google Alerts, BlogPulse, and Trendrr) Take at least 30 days to monitor the tone and volume of your topic of conversation.

Give good directions – If you are expecting for people to follow you, make sure you know where you are going. If your updates are about business and money, don’t have them click on a blog site about rubber chickens. Just because you don’t carry it or offer it, doesn’t mean you can’t help point someone in the right direction. Pay it forward is socially correct.

Be creative –Many companies are using blogs/micro-sites as landing pages rather than linking to boring institutional corporate sites. This web strategy allows for flexibility and niche specific content within a large or small scale product line or service industry.

Talking with the right people at the right time with the right message is possible. Listening to the conversation is the best way to stumble into your biggest fans. The alternative is to place your business card on the cork board on the way to the bathroom. Let me know how that works for you.

Branding Social Media in Tallahassee?

As I meet with local Tallahassee businesses, I find companies are still trying to figure out what to do with social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace.

The debate is whether these sites are just a trend or are they new channels of communicating in a modern digital era.  Regardless where a business stands on the social media platform, the answer is that millions of new users are exploring these sites every month.  Social media users are not just teens, college students or businesses either.  It’s everyone from every demographic.

With the growing number of newcomers to the digital communities, the world has become a more connected planet.  The once essential long distance phone plan barrier has been removed and replaced with open lines of communication.

With keyword search capabilities built within Twitter, it is very easy to jump into the specific conversation topic you are most interested in.  Rather than having to search Google page after page looking for websites for information, keywords are now delivered straight to your desktop: Getting in on the latest trends and updates has never been easier.

If it is so easy to gain access to this information, why are some business locking the doors to these social media channels?  Just because people spend personal time on the phone, do you take the company phones off the hook?  Just because employees send personal emails from work, do you turn off the email servers?  Just because staff members often hang out in employee offices for long periods of time, does that mean you lock all the doors until 5pm everyday?

No.  In each given situation, a progressive company views each channel of communication as a way for people to connect with the business or organization.  A proactive company will develop a strategy of how to best use each channel and provide training for maximizing each channel.  Whether it is direct policy or an outline of best practices, the best use of communication tools should be developed and optimized.

If you have locked Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace out, who else have you locked out of being able to interact with your company or products?  One huge benefit of social media sites is the fact that they are open 24/7.  Leveraging social media can allow your clients and/or prospects to weave in and out of the purchase or service life cycle.  Just because the front doors are closed after 5pm, doesn’t mean the customer has to come back later.  In fact, they might just go down the street, or in the digital world just click to the next tweet if you keep them out!

What is your Social Media Strategy?

Based on a true experience:

“This past weekend I came back to my rental car to find that I couldn’t turn the ignition key at all. I tried the key while yanking on the steering wheel and the gear shift, but no luck. I was at a loss, and turned to Twitter to see if anyone knew anything about this undocumented feature of the Pontiac G5 (Detroit’s woes are easier for me to understand after this experience). I tweeted “Ignition key won’t turn at all in rented Pontiac G5. Anyone got any ideas – help!”

Within a few minutes I got 16 responses back. They all told me essentially the same thing – that there was no trick specific to that car, and that the key was to keep cranking on the steering wheel while turning the key. I did so, and eventally got the damned thing to start.

My point with this story is not just to bust on GM, but also to highlight that I got 16 shots of altruism from people, most of whom I didn’t know, at a time when I could really use them.

They were willing to help me out not because I’m such a good friend of theirs (not the case) or such an obviously great guy (depends heavily on who you talk to), but because we humans like being altruistic, and Twitter makes altruism the work of a few seconds. The help I got cost each each sender virtually nothing, yet added up to a highly valuable resource for me. I think it’s important not to lose sight of that, and to keep in mind that not all exchanges are governed by incentives, mutual benefit, or economic rationality. Sometimes they’re governed by simple neighborliness, and Twitter is an awfully big neighborhood.” Andrew McAfee

(Andrew McAfee is currently an Associate Professor in the Technology and Operations Management area at Harvard Business School.)

This story reminds me of a good friend of mine who works at University GM here in Tallahassee, Tim Barry.  As a GM Internet Manager, he knows more about Pontiacs, Cadillacs, GMCs, HUMMERs, and Buicks than anyone I know.  He is the kind of guy that would respond to that question in a heartbeat.

If you are in customer service for your business and you aren’t on Twitter listening for feedback from your customers, you are missing an opportunity to provide a greater than expected level of service.  CLICK HERE to create a Twitter Account.

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/TallyDigitalBiz

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Want to learn more about leveraging Social Media for your Business?  Visit Social850.com for a free “Lunch and Learn” seminar coming up May 19th!

Seth Godin argues the Internet has ended mass marketing and revived a human social unit from the distant past: tribes. Founded on shared ideas and values, tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change. He urges us to do so.Brilliant! If you haven’t bought Seth Godin’s book Tribes, go to Amazon now and get it!

Seth Godin – The Tribes We Lead

Having spent much of my professional life centered in the customer service industry, my experience with a business or service tells me a lot about the future of that business.  This morning I took my oldest to the orthodontist for a visit.  She is on the last leg of treatment for her braces.  The first time I visited the office, I was impressed with the small office set up.  There was a TV in the wall with a remote control for smaller kids to play video games and a larger TV mounted on the wall for parents while waiting.  As added incentive to keep up with regular cleaning and care, the young patients are given tokens redeemable for prizes.  I was dazzled by my new orthodontist.

Then they moved.  Often when businesses move, the cost of upgrading and the move is beyond the scope of the budget.  Not only did my orthodontist complete the upgrade to the building, but careful detail was taken into consideration in the service experience.  Dr. Stevens must view his clinic’s service as a brand in and of itself.  If my middle school daughter is willing to risk fashion ridicule by wearing her Stevens Orthodontist t-shirt to school, then Dr. Stevens has successfully created experience as a brand. Watch out Holister, Abercrombie, and Guy Harvey, DoctorSO is crashing the fashion party!

When I go to Stevens Orthodontics, I know that I have a fresh ground cappuccino waiting. If my youngest has to go with me to wait on her big sister, she will be completely entertained by a beautiful beach mural, or the plasma TV mounted at kid eye level, or the huge aquarium filled with colorful, exotic fish.  If one of the little ones gets hungry, there is a mini fridge loaded with juices, fresh baked cookies on the counter.  Dr. Stevens has successfully taken his orthodontics clinic to the next level.

You see, Dr. Stevens gets it.  It is about the experience.  It’s not just about the patient experiencing a positive and professional level of service, but it’s also about the experience of those who are waiting, enjoying the atmosphere and amenities.

How many times have you visited a place of business and experienced a less than satisfactory visit?  There’s nothing more frustrating than going to buy your favorite item or product and having a blah blah blah experience.  How many blasé experiences will it take before your favorite is no longer your favorite?

If you are a local business and you’ve spent a lot of time and energy building a great physical store, you can’t neglect the digital landscape either.  Dr. Stevens understands that a comprehensive business will have a deep digital footprint, as well as a solid concrete foundation. Well done doctor!

Dr. Stevens has his blog at http://drlucasstevens.blogspot.com/

Dr. Stevens MySpace at: http://www.myspace.com/drlucasstevens

Stevens Orthodontics primary website at: http://www.stevensorthodontics.com/

Ps.  Don’t forget to brush!