Website Versus Facebook Page? What's best for your small Business?

I am often asked whether a small business should get a website or a Facebook page as an alternative. Whilst both have their merits and advantages it really comes down to a very simple question.

What do you want your Website or Facebook Page to achieve for your small business?

9 times out of ten it's a fairly simple answer. ‘To make the phone ring'. (The way Yellow Pages used to, last century) 

Intent Based Advertising:

Secenario from this century:
Same situation however this time I go to Google and type in ‘Plumber Essendon' I need a plumber in Essendon today. If my website is built correctly and your Google Places Map has been adjusted accordingly you should rank highly and stand a very good chance of the very least have this person click through to your website.

Content Based Advertising

Facebook offers the opportunity to promote your brand / products on pages of those who have already endorsed your brand by liking your Facebook page. In essence each time you do a post this goes into their news feed and the fact they allow this on their piece of space means they have unofficially endorsed your brand. ‘Brand awareness with a recommendation.' It doesn't come any better.

For small businesses not sure of what to do Google is your first port of call so

1. Get a website for your small business that is Google Friendly
2. Start ‘blogging' on your website (This strengthens your Google positioning for key words)
3. Set up social media properly
   1. DO NOT RELY on the office girl who is on Facebook all the time as the social media guru. Posting on Facebook is relatively easy and should be undertaken by someone who understands your brands and products and knows what your marketing needs to achieve)
4. Follow a strategy to achieve your goals. It's not about having a website or posting on social media, it's about sales.

For small businesses looking to stick a toe in the water with digital marketing get yourself a website first, then talk to a digital specialist to help point you in the right direction with social media.

Posted By
Karl Morris
Karl is a small business champion that is teaching small business that digital marketing is affordable and achieveable with a simple strategy. It's not about who has the most dollars but who has the best digital assistant / developer.

Google+ 

Australia Post - Facebook all so wrong

For your own benefit go to the Australia Post Facebook page . Given the size and structure of this organisation you would think that their marketing department would actually care about their social media and in particular their Facebook page but in my opinion they don't. With over 12,000 'likes' for their Facebook Business Page this is a disgrace.

They have gone to the effort of building out a pretty 'Great Christmas Gift Away' Page but you have to navigate to this Page as opposed to landing on this as a first time visitor. Instead you land on their 'Customer Care Page'.

The Customer Care Page is the official Australia Post Facebook landing page. They need to learn about 'Fan Gating' The ability to put up a once of welcome page that encourages people to click the 'like' button. This page only displays for those that haven't 'liked' their page yet. Instead we get a pretty graphic at the top of the page that takes you into a list of comments that can only be described as farcical, consistent and sustained abuse. They may as well have put up a graphic that says 'like us and have a laugh at the abuse we cop below'

At Social GOOP (a new division of GOOP) we customise a clients social media and we put a bit more thought into the process and the structure. Australia Post as one of Australia's icon brands your efforts, resources and contribution to your Social Media strategy should be much better than this. I believe we do a better job for our small business social media set ups than what you have done with your vast media and advertising budgets.

I hope that over the Christmas break your marketing department gets the chance to open a fresh jar of coffee, take a deep breath and smell that coffee. Australia Post, you can do better than that.

To have a look for yourself visit http://www.facebook.com/australiapost

Posted By
Karl Morris
Karl is a small business champion that is teaching small business that digital marketing is affordable and achieveable with a simple strategy. It's not about who has the most dollars but who has the best digital assistant / developer.

What do I do with Yellow Pages Print and Online ? Renew / Decrease / Cease

I am getting asked this question on a regular basis at the moment. GOOP has many clients that already have or are in the process of dramatically reducing the cost and exposure on Yellow Pages in both directory and Print.

Yellow Pages Online (Australia) is what I consider to be the single greatest mistake a small business can make with their advertising dollars. If you have any queries on this one call me on 03 5222 4220. My best advice here is don't do it

Yellow Pages Print Directory

If you have a business that runs on low margins you really need to consider the value Yellow Pages may or may not have to offer your business. For example if you sell a product for $50.00 yet you only make $15.00 Gross profit you have a return of 30%

If you were spending $6,000 on Yellow Pages this would mean that you would need to sell $20,000 to recoup your cost at a gross level and you would need to sell another $20,000 just to make a gross margin of $6,000 dollars.

In essence at $50.00 per item you would need 400 new clients to break even and you would need 800 new clients/customers to make $6,000. Is Yellow Pages going to deliver 800 new clients/customers over the year. This calculation is rather simplistic and does not take into account the potential for larger purchases and clients/customers to become regular/repeat visitors.

Do your own surveys of your customer base. You will be amazed how many are repeat customers or direct word of mouth. Will Yellow Pages generate enough new revenue to cover the cost of your advertisement, or are your existing customers helping you to pay your advertising that is unwarranted?

As a smart small business person you need to ask yourself is this is the best method of spending your limited marketing dollars?

THE SOCIAL NETWORK

Amanda Ferry

Directed by David Finch, starring Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake, Andrew Garfield. This is a story about the founders of the social networking website Facebook.

The roles are cast exceedingly well, and Eisenberg's (Oscar anyone?) portrayal of Zuzkerburg is brilliant, if perhaps not entirely fair. He is flawed, but no doubt part genius and it is difficult not to find him endearing. It would be easy enough to dislike him, he is at times an a-hole, who betrays his very few friends and manipulates his way to the top, but we are talking about a 24 YEAR OLD BILLIONAIRE. Personally I love his arrogance and his business card title "I'm CEO - Bitch" appeals to my sense of humour especially since the title on my business card is "Wonder Woman".

At times the needs of film outweigh the real story, however this does not distract from this shockingly good movie that packs a rapid pace. The beauty of this movie is that it will appeal to all types.

The mother of all inventions - we have Facebook because Zuckerman got dumped. I love that. An inspiring film for all small business owners.

GOOGLE BOOST, TAPPING IN TO SMALL BUSINESS DOLLARS

Karl Morris

ADVERTISE YOUR LOCAL BUSINESS WITH GOOGLE BOOST

Working with small businesses Google's advertising product ‘Adwords' can be just that little bit too difficult to get them involved.  Most small businesses (particularly in regional zones) don't have big enough budgets to pay a third party to do their Adwords adequately for them and they don't have the time or the inclination to do this themselves so Google is missing an enormous revenue opportunity here. That is until now!!

Google's new ‘Boost' product could be just the tonic small businesses have been looking for. For all intents and purposes it looks easy enough to use and can give you a marked advantage over your local competitors. It is currently only available to select businesses (United States only) via invitation in San Francisco, Houston and Chicago. However the guys at Google tend to roll these things out very quickly once they get the green light from such beta trials. I know I'm looking forward to this one.

A SOCIAL MEDIA PARODY

An hilarious parody on the impact of social media on journalism.

THE 5 PILLARS OF GUARANTEED BUSINESS SUCCESS BY DR GREG CHAPMAN

Amanda Ferry

The 5 Pillars of GUARANTEED Business Success : Why most businesses will stay small and what YOU do about YOURS.
Published by Empower Business Solutions Pty Ltd (Australia)
2008

Dr Chapman has written this book divided into two key areas.

1. The life cycles of a business
   1. Infancy
   2. Adolesence
   3. Growing Pains
   4. Maturity
   5. Decay
2. The 5 pillars of guaranteed business success 
   1. The plan
   2. Marketing strategy
   3. Business systems
   4. People systems
   5. You!
      

For any budding entrepreneur growing a small business or anybody that has ever grown and sold their business you will find yourself nodding (or crying) in agreement with nearly every aspect of this book.

However rather than providing a ‘road map' for your business this is more a ‘how to drive the car' instructions manual that is incredibly useful and lets you know how to slow the vehicle down, speed it up and ultimately get you to where you want to go. The where you want to go is up to you.

The key to this book for small business is that it inspires and shows you how to drive and really gives you the tools drive.
Where you want to go is up to you. Take it for a test drive. Pointless having a map if you can't reach your destination

I highly recommend this book for any small business owners and suggest that you get along to one of Dr Greg Chapmans Seminars. More information at

www.gregchapman.biz
http://blog.australiansmallbusiness.net.au

POWER FRIENDING BY AMBER MAC

Amanda Ferry

Power Friending: Demystifying Social Media to Grow Your Business
Published by Penguin Group (USA)
2010

Amber Mac is a strategist, speaker, author and journalist with extensive online experience. As co founder of agency MGImedia.ca her team has managed social media initiatives for Tony Robbins, Canada Goose, Rogers, the American Dental Association amongst others. As a new media journalist, she currently hosts net@night with tech guru Leo Laporte.

A recent webinar by Amber on social media cemented my beliefs about the following: 

• blogs and social media posts are essential in todays online market
• be engaging when you write your blog
• blogs allow us to build credability and awareness
• your website is your asset, blog regularly to increase your content
• add "how to" content for your product, blogs are a great way to educate & entertain your customers
• most of our website content remains relatively static, consumers will look at your blog for your most up to date content
• it must be objective focused, don't blog just because your competitors are. Stick to your objectives and ensure your business keeps it's authenticity
• don't measure your social media for an immediate ROI, but rather as an ROE (return on engagement) - it should increase your businesses awareness / branding and thus, long term increase your sales

My copy is yet to arrive in the post, I will keep you posted. 

A LOGO FOR YOUR BUSINESS

Amanda Ferry

At Goop we work exclusively with small business in digital strategy encompassing web design and development through to social media integration. After being engaged by a client the very first item we require is a logo. The volume of small businesses that don't have a professionally prepared logo is amazingly high. When developing the website this presents us with  a number of issues but more importantly I believe the business has already created issues for itself.

PRESENTATION OF YOUR BUSINESS

Instability
Creating one image and changing regularly can imply lack of direction. A central logo ensures that all materials eminating from your business remain consistent with constant logos and colours.

First Impressions
First impressions can be lasting. The lack of a professional logo can serioulsy impede your first impressions.

Amateurish Design
Unless you have a very good eye nothing screems amateur like clip art or other home made graphic creations. If you are a professional at work and wish to convey this then make sure you have a professionally created logo.

Established and Professional
A strong corporate logo conveys established and professional. 'We care' about all aspects of our business and we want to be remembered. 

Whilst cashflow is essential in the early days of your business do not under estimate the power of your logo to help establish and drive your business and it's reputation. At Goop we work with and recommend several graphic designers who can help with your corporate identity and in the process help us to keep your corporate look and feel consistent. 

		Narelle Craven 0422 630 020 email
		Shell West 0416 111 295 email
		Nick 03 5444 5222 email

SOCIALNOMICS BY ERIK QUALMAN

Amanda Ferry

Socialnomics : How social media transforms the way we live and do business
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey 2009

This book gives an incredible insight to the growth and development of social media. It offers invaluable lessons into the protocols of operating in the new world of social media. Dell Hell (Jeff Jarvis, Dell Hell ) is an amazing example of social media and the power of the people in the 'early days' of this phenomenon.

The ascendency of Barrack Obama to the US presidency and the startling statistics of the comparison with the McCain camp further reiterate and drive home the power and influence that social media has in today's society. This book gives real world examples of businesses that have got social media right and those that have got it wrong as well as those that have amended their ways on 'the fly' because they are listening and reacting to 'the community'.

A great book and a simple read that you can easily go back to and identify points of interest however it is definitely not a nuts and bolts 'how to' of Social Media and for this I would recommend you get yourself a copy of Safko and Brakes, The Social Media Bible. All in all though, Socialnomics is a great book for influencers that can take snippets to assist in convincing businesses and clients of the importance of utilising social media.

SOCIAL MEDIA CAN NO LONGER BE IGNORED

Karl Morris

Social Media has exploded in popularity and is no longer the domain of 16~24 year olds taking photos of themselves on a Saturday night out with their freinds. US President Obama is at the forefront of Social Media with his successful challenge and ultimately winning not only the democratic nomination but also winning the presidential election in 2008 in the United States of America. Women aged 55~65 are the fastest growing demographic on Facebook. If Facebook was a country it would be 3rd largest in population. The explosion in GPS tracking data via IPhones, Blackberry and android mobile phones mean applications such as foursquare are only just starting to hit their straps. But what does this mean for small business?

Small business needs to get a handle on Social Media. It's essential moving forward.

ONLINE MARKETING FOR SMALL BUSINESS ISN'T THAT HARD

Karl Morris

That's easy for me to say because I live and breathe online marketing for small businesses. However most small businesses don't have enough time in the day nor the inclination to invest time and effort into developing a strategical online marketing presence.

If you are a small business thinking of investing in an online marketing presence the basic ingredients are:

• a very Google friendly small business website
• a blog on your website
• an e newsletter
• a Facebook fan page
• a business Twitter account
• Foursquare (mainly relevant to businesses with a retail presence, particularly cafes, bars, coffee shops etc)
• a Hootsuite or Ping account. (Read more on mashable )

From here it is quite simple.

Write a relevant blog about your products, services and locations, go to your Hootsuite or Ping account, give a mini spin and point people towards your website blog article.

This is a rather simplistic overview but powerful none the less. Repeat the process at a minimum monthly. The qualified traffic should flow through to your small business website.