Is social media suited to every kind of business?

[JakeThomas]

I was recently inspired by a post by one of our forum members (bridiej) about "dumping Facebook" - the article can be found here.

It's really got me thinking about the social media I use for my business (Emroy - Print & Design) and whether or not I'm finding it to be fruitful.

I think I jumped on the Facebook bandwagon because everyone else has, who isn't lured by the prospect of free advertising? Only issue I've found is it's been far from free.

First of all, It's taken a big time investment and I haven't seen a lot of returns. I started thinking about my own personal Facebook use and I rarely if ever will like a business page (unless supporting members of SBF or similar) and even then, I don't log on Facebook to be marketed to - I log onto catch up with friends, keep up with family and friends interstate and of course look at all the weight my ex's have put on. Reading promotional articles is the LAST thing I want to do.

Why would I expect my potential customers to be the same?

So overall, I'm thinking of throwing in the Facebook Page and focusing on other proven advertising avenues.

What are your thoughts?

(PS: Will not be throwing in the FB page for SBF as that one works quite well)

[bridiej]

That's one of the things I considered Jake - I use Facebook to connect with my family and friends. Yes, I have liked business pages, mainly as a show of support for other business users I've met on forums and other social media sites, but the amount I actually look at on a regular basis is incredibly small - probably only two or three that I really make an effort to go and look at what they've posted, the others pop up in the news stream and I may or may not take a look, just depends at the time.

I do think that Facebook can be a great resource for some businesses, but in my own case I was like you - spending hours finding content to share and keeping my followers engaged for very little return. In fact, before I mentioned it only one person had even noticed the page was gone, and only one other person has said they will miss it (who is also a VA so not a potential client).

I've now switched my time to concentrate on LinkedIn as I think it will ultimately be more rewarding for my business.

Let us know what you decide.

[v2Media]

I was never on the FB wagon, never will. It's a 100% waste of time.

[eBusiness Buddy]

I think that Facebook is more suited as a tool to support conversation and sharing among your customers rather than purely for advertising. It can be a valuable tool if your business has a strong community aspect, but if that's not the case, then your time is probably better spent on other things that showcase your business and attract the attention of your potential customers better.

[v2Media]

Facebook holds more value as a marketing/advertising vehicle for companies with products that appeal to the masses. Even then, the FB followership expects special treatment - discounts and the like. And when I say masses - I mean everyone.

eBusiness, if your community angle included qualifiers such as 'online community with many young, avid facebook users', I'd agree. Just because a business has an online community, that doesn't automatically qualify as a recipe for facebook success. As the average age of the community rises, the number of facebook users in that community falls.

I can think of 3 cases in point:- A finance advisory website selling premium content to affluent 25-35 y.o. males, an online model agency pimping models to casting directors, and Virgin Airlines. The finance site made a big push via facebook and was a waste of time. The community members didn't waste their time with FB, too busy making money. The modelling agency practically depends on facebook because the personalities in the community are obsessed with being famous and popular; common qualities of avid fb users. The third business is Virgin; Virgin loves to market via FB and have published the fact that it is very successful providing that their followership gets regular, exclusive discount services.

[bridiej]

Facebook holds more value as a marketing/advertising vehicle for companies with products that appeal to the masses. Even then, the FB followership expects special treatment - discounts and the like. And when I say masses - I mean everyone.

I agree. I did the whole "conversation" thing, I shared intresting content that wasn't necessarily related to my core business, I tried to have some fun by sharing an uplifting music video every Friday but TBH nothing really worked.

I really think people follow companies on Facebook for special offers and discounts, like the Virgin example you've given.

[FarahW]

Hmmm. I think it is tough in general for businesses in term of FB. You need to invest a lot of time and energy before the consumer will even think of putting in the same. But I wouldn't give up the endeavour entirely. A lot of studies into social media marketing has shown that a lot of consumers make use of what a business puts in without the business ever knowing. I'm guilty of that as well; I use a lot of interaction tools businesses give their customers on social media without ever "liking" or "following" them, even if I visit their pages regularly.

I think the main importance of social media is brand building, in terms of engaging the customer and building brand retention in their minds. Most consumers in the market (roughly 94-98%) are only storing information for future use, and helping to put your brand in the forefront for when they convert to the other 2-6% is important.

The most important use of social media should be examined with understanding of "tribal" marketing. It's a fairly new concept, and one that is quite exciting and interesting. It's fairly hard to explain in a few words but it works on the premise of viral marketing, that one person will spread the word to another person. With people relying more and more on word of mouth advertising, social media marketing can provide a means to penetrate into this area of marketing that no other means can.

[sweetbeats]

I spend a tiny amount on facebook. I try to post something every couple of days. Every time I post something about a new product or sale or whatever, there's a flood of poeple leaving fb to visit my site.

Do they buy? No. Or rarely, anyway.

I think it covers its cost (tiny) and gives me a feelgood factor. It's also a good way to build trust - for example, I've had people email adn say they are nervous about buying online, so I've said okay well have a look at our fb page you can see what we're about.

As for the free networking, it's huge with the 'wahm' crowd (women/mothers working from home) but I found it to be time consuming. Having said that, I have had some sales from it but mostly felt that it's not worth it unless you'd sort of being doing it anyway.... ie I have a few business/pages that I follow and I somtimes comment on their feeds, so it's getting my business 'out there' to an extent but it's a pretty natural interaction. But I do know poeple who make a fortune solely through selling to facebook likers (ie handmade boutique baby clothes). By fortune I mean - supplementing the family income/ small business level but no overheads really so works well for those poeple.

[katie_proofreader]

For me my FB business page is about building brand awareness not immediate sales. I also regulate my content, so I know on a Monday I am going to post 'word of the week' and on Wednesday's a 'spot the error'. If I find anything else of interest I will post it, but I try to keep it as low maintenance as possible. The 'spot the error' engages the fans and hopefully displays my skills so when the time comes for them to think about engaging the services of an editor or proofreader they think of me.

However, I don't think it is suitable for a lot of businesses. If used it should be part of your marketing strategy, but not the entire strategy.

[MihadAli]

This is a topic my uni class was discussing on Thursday...and now possibly a topic for my Honours thesis. In class we were talking about how FB is suited to some businesses and not others like a business servicing a niche market and how it is hard to businesses to maintain a social media presence and a physical location and have to choose between the two. What do you guys think?