On Thursday, Facebook announced major changes to the platform that we all know – and hardly love. Through the wonders of modern technology (thank you, C Spire), I watched the entire presentation through streaming video, from my car, while Andy drove. An hour or so later, my summary and comments went to the media in the following statement. To begin what will certainly be a lengthy discussion on this blog of the money-making possibilities for a variety of businesses with the new Facebook platform, I wanted to share this release with you.

Chapman Comments on Facebook Overhaul

September 22, 2011 – Today, changes were announced in the last few hours by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg. Below is a summary and extemporaneous comments from The Gibbes Company’s Director of New Media Marianna Chapman.

Today, Facebook announced major changes that in the words of their CEO Mark Zuckerburg will “reinvent industries.”
Among those that will be transformed by today’s announcement are music, video, media, and businesses selling lifestyle brands, products or experiences… that’s a pretty broad range of reinvention!

Facebook’s announcement today centered around two major changes and a third change that I believe is the most transformational of all for business. Today’s announcement will forever change the way that life is shared and how content spreads virally throughout the social web.

Most importantly for business, I believe, is the introduction of “verbs” to the open graph. Last year, Facebook introduced nouns to the open graph, allowing users to “like” a variety of people, places, things, experiences, etc. Many businesses have experienced the benefit of the “like” button as it has driven personal preferences for brands, products and experiences virally over the past year.

Now, verbs are added. Developers will be able to add any verb they wish to the open graph and insert those reactions into the open graph in a variety of ways. For example, the possibilities include the addition of a “want,” “ate,” “cooked,” “read,” “listened” or “watched” buttons that operate similarly to the current “like” button. For business purposes, this allows marketers to personalize more specifically how users engage with products, brands and experiences in a way that boosts social sharing – and thus the exponential power of their marketing machine when used strategically.

Beyond this development, two major interface changes were announced.

Beginning immediately for developers in beta format, and then rolling out to all users over the next few weeks, Facebook will introduce the Facebook Timeline. The Facebook Timeline will entirely replace the current personal Profile for Facebook users. Facebook calls this Profile replacement a way to present the “story of your life.” This new format looks to me a lot like a “Tumblr style” blog presentation of all the various types of experiences in your life including photos, videos, wall posts and comments, travel, and interactions with all of life among other things.

Next, canvas apps will allow for “frictionless experiences” with apps, and therefore products, brands and experiences, on Facebook. Think of it like the demise of the pop-up box and the birth of more real-time web-based social sharing… That’s a mouthful! But the interface looks fantastic, and the development options for business are mind-boggling. Facebook will immediately introduce music, video and news apps with the launch of Timeline.

These Facebook developments present a fundamental leap forward in the power of Facebook for viral marketing as well as the overall power of social sharing on the greater web.

Want to talk about this more?

Contact me directly at mchapman at gibbes dot net, or let’s chat in the comments. I welcome your thoughts and this discussion is just getting started to be sure!

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It’s funny. It seems like the posts you (my readers) like the best are the ones where I give a more personal insight into the work I’m doing, or the thoughts I’m thinking as it relates to business. Not to take all the warm and fuzzies out of it, but I’ve got stats to prove this. The web analytics, Facebook insights and Twitter re-tweets – they all tell the story. My readers…my customers…they like knowing the real me and hearing that inside my brain, emotional, thoughtful type stuff.

Which got me thinking… maybe your customers would like the same thing.

Customers Are Humans, Too.

In general, humans are emotional beings, created to live in community with other humans and to interact with on a personal level. There’s way more to every business transaction than some logical need – there is an emotional connection that takes place – yes, even in the most shrewd business situations. So, how can you use this fact to connect on a deeper level (which creates immense customer loyalty, by the way) with your customers today?

Here are a few ideas I had… But I’d also love to hear your ideas, so fire away in the comments sections to help all of us do a better job at using our “humanness” as a marketing tactic to grow our businesses.

1. Use a picture of a human (you, the business owner, the manager, a key employee, an employee of the month, even a customer testimonial with photo) on your outgoing messages (that includes email, web site pages, traditional advertisements, posts on Facebook and your Twitter profile pic for your business).

2. Have all owners and employees name tags in your business, so that customers can connect with a name, not just a face.

3. Have all owners and employees introduce themselves personally and shake hands or hug customers when they enter (depending on the level of familiarity, of course). Physical contact in this professional way will deepen relationships and leave a more lasting positive impression.

4. Have your owner and employees become a source of valuable ideas instead of marketing gimmicks. For example, instead of greeting a customer with a sales gimmick when they walk in the store, have them demonstrate what to do with a certain item, how to use it, etc.

5. Place signs around the store with photos of employees or owners that provide personalized advice through signage. For example:

Mary’s Top 10 Graduation Gift Ideas Under $50

Mary’s Favorite Pair of Jeans for Summer – White Bootcut Delta Blues

Mary Recommends… Mixing your grandmother’s antique china with this Gail Pittman ivory pottery plate for a bright spring luncheon

6. Use your blog, email, Facebook and Twitter as a place to circulate more of these types of ideas, to reach out to others who are asking questions or making comments that you can engage in conversation about (i.e. be human and join conversations in a normal human way, but on behalf of your business).

7. Use your blog to explain more about the ideas you’ve shared on the signs in-store. For example, you can create a blog post “written by” the person who made the tip on the store sign, include their photo on the blog post as well, include some additional sample pictures of products (include price and official name of product in the caption), and explain in more detail what you presented on the store sign. For instance, if you were saying more about Mary’s favorite pair of summer jeans, you might show some outfit ideas, tell why they are her favorite from her perspective (does she have a certain body type that they fit well, are they lighter weight for hot Southern summers, is there an event that she looks forward to that she plans to wear the jeans to?), and even share a bit of the story behind the brand (a brand created in the South to fit Southern women, etc.). This extends the customer’s in-store experience, and it gives you a lot of content to post on social media, which will in turn also create new sales. And it’s all done from a human, personal perspective, which will lead to tighter emotional connections, higher per-ticket sales averages, and a more loyal customer base.

Trust me… we all really do like it when people are more human in how they do business. The numbers prove it.

Image by: brewbooks

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Choosing one social network over another might seem like a toss-up for small business owners. What does it matter which one you use, as long as your business is online? You’re interacting, you’re building a network, so you’re accomplishing your online marketing goals, right?

Well, maybe. But with a little insight you can not only make better decisions about which social network(s) to put time and effort into, you can also learn how to use them more effectively. That means more results in less time, and that’s a good thing for anyone in the hectic world of running a small business.

What Are Your Goals?

(If you don’t know, check out this recent post on how to set your goals – and follow our series on marketing planning.)

What do you want to accomplish with your social networking? If your first answer is “to create an online presence,” well, that’s a good starting point. But what do you want to do with that online presence? Do you want to connect with customers? Get feedback? Build a mailing list? Generate leads? Sell your products and services online? Get people to your blog or website? Collect customer information? Interact with your most loyal customers? Get word-of-mouth spreading via the online networks?

Certainly it would be nice to accomplish all of those things with social networking, and over time you can get close to achieving all. In fact, most of those goals are spin-offs; achieve one, such as spreading word-of-mouth, and you’re automatically achieving another, such as generating sales leads.

But goal achieving isn’t automatic. While any online presence is better than none, a smart small business will make savvy use of the Internet and those vast resources.

Facebook vs. Twitter: A Few Surprises

Facebook is the online giant, bigger than Google now, with 78% of all social networking traffic belonging to Facebook, That’s great news for you, when you set up your Facebook Business Page. And Twitter, with only 5% of the social networking traffic, is a much, much smaller piece of the pie. But traffic isn’t the only thing that matters; you not only need people to visit you (on Facebook or Twitter) you also need them to respond, to interact, to follow through, to take you up on those great offers. And while Facebook, the social giant, gets an average of 3 clicks per link posted, Twitter users get a much higher response: an average of 19 clickthroughs for each embedded link. That’s a huge difference!

How to Be Savvy
Now before you go delete your Facebook page and focus all your time and attention on Twitter, take a moment. Facebook and Twitter are vastly different social networks, and if you’re smart, you’ll use both – in a partnership – and reap the benefits of both. Here are a few key differences:

Facebook reaches a bigger audience, but Twitter reaches a more targeted audience. So it’s going to take longer to get noticed on Facebook, but there’s huge potential once that happens. Once you do cross an attention threshold with Facebook, your audience is almost unlimited. So realize that you’ll have to invest more time into building up your Facebook page, but that the investment can pay off in big numbers.

Twitter is very of-the-moment, but Facebook makes browsing easier. Although the new Twitter interface makes it easier to look back at the history of a particular user, it’s a different atmosphere. Twitter users want to be in the moment, so if they miss your first link or mention, they might not go back and find it. With Facebook, however, when a user visits your page they get all your latest information right there in one spot, and responding to older posts or information is easier and more common. Use Twitter to tweet and retweet relevant news, information, links, updates, deals, and ongoing items of interest, and use Facebook to interact on a deeper level with your customers and fans.

Image by 10ch.

Sources:
Entrepreneur Magazine
SocialTwist Sharing Trends Report

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The busiest time of the year for most retail businesses starts with the dawn of November. As you reflect on 2010′s holiday season, there’s never a better time to plan for next year.

Next year, when the official busy season rolls around again, you’ll be ready. There’s a lot you can do to boost your retail sales beyond playing Christmas music and hanging a few lights in the windows. While creating a festive atmosphere is always a smart move, creating holiday specials, which keep customers coming back, is an even smarter move. (For other holiday marketing ideas, check out these posts.)

Holiday specials are not a new idea. Local business owners have been creating seasonal menus, gift baskets, packages, and holding special sales and getting good results from these seasonal strategies. But incorporating a few new ideas into your holiday specials this year could help you boost your sales even in a slow economy. Remember that people are still going to be shopping for gifts; they’re just going to be a little choosier than usual with tighter budgets. That’s where your holiday specials come into the picture.

Strategy 1: Create Holiday Specials for Every Price Point

Marketing research is showing that shoppers enjoy having options. A lot of options. (Read Chris Anderson’s fascinating book at www.longtail.com, for a discussion of this research.) So give your shoppers plenty of options by creating not just one or two holiday specials or packages, but 5 or 6… or 10… or 12. If you’re a higher-end establishment, go ahead and offer a higher price point selection of holiday specials; but expand into a lower price point and offer options there as well.

Use the same principle if you tend to sell more items at a lower cost; offer several lower cost options, but offer some higher price point selections as well. Create multiple displays throughout your brick and mortar store. You want your customers to be seeing this amazing selection – and the great prices and products you’re offering – several times as they move through your retail space.

Strategy 2: Create Limited Availability Holiday Specials

Have you ever thought about why people love seasonal specials? Because they’re only here for a limited time. Think about candy corn; is it really that great? And if it were available all year ’round, would people ever get very excited about it? But people do, because it’s only around for a short time out of the year. That limited availability makes the product more desirable and more valuable.

Use that limited availability concept with your holiday specials. If you’re a retail establishment, you could create several custom, one-of-a-kind gift baskets; once each one is gone, it’s simply gone. Or offer a great deal on a special product, but only through the next week. Don’t feel like you have to extend your holiday specials all the way through the holiday season. Instead, create value by placing time limits or quantity limits on particular specials.

Strategy 3: Introduce New Specials Through the Holiday Season

This strategy works hand-in-hand with the concept of limited availability specials. As you phase out one holiday special, phase in another. Not only will the limited availability increase the perceived value of each special, but your customers will want to keep coming back to see what’s new this week. Remember: shoppers enjoy options. They also enjoy the feeling that they’re getting an “insider’s” special.

Strategy 4: Collect Customer Information with Each Holiday Sale

Let your customers be insiders by offering to keep them informed about new, exclusive holiday specials as they become available. Collect customer names and contact information with each sale, and make the offer as well to customers who aren’t yet making a purchase. They can still sign up to be on the list and find out about new specials.

If you’re planning to hold a special holiday event (such as an open house or one-day sale), then this list is your first step in the marketing for the event. Send out an exclusive invitation to those folks on your holiday list, inviting them in an hour or two before the general public. They get to enjoy a privileged shopping time, you get to interact and build relationships. It’s fun for everyone.

Strategy 5: Promote Holiday Specials via Website, Facebook, and Twitter

Whatever presence you have online should be part of your holiday marketing. Put up notices about your holiday specials, big and bold, on your website’s front page. Send out an email to all your online subscribers. Send out regular updates via your Facebook and/or Twitter accounts, letting your customers know about new holiday shipments, specials, coupons, events, deals, and so on.

Ask for feedback, too. What kind of holiday specials are your customers looking for? Ask specific questions (“What’s the best Christmas present you ever received?”) and interact with those who respond. Have an online contest or giveaway, with the prize being one of your holiday exclusive specials.

Remember that you have to give shopper a reason to choose your product, your store; over the other options they have available. Using some creativity with your holiday specials can create a powerful appeal, and offer value to both your customers and your business.

Image by Sister72.

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