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!

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

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

Improve Your Holiday Sales by Promoting your Holiday Sales Online

In this day of increasing e-commerce importance, Black Friday is now only half of the post-Thanksgiving shopping megathon. Cyber Monday is the other half, just one more (strong) indication that the masses aren’t just shopping in-store anymore. They are, most definitely, shopping online. As we near the Christmas deadline, the shopping averse, busy mommy in me has once again found myself leaning on e-commerce… With that in mind, I send my annual encouragement to make this the year that you enjoy the increased profits possible from delving into the online world of e-commerce sales…

It’s easier than ever before: You can attract the online shopping crowd even if you’re not selling online by promoting your holiday specials via your website, blog, Facebook page, and/or Twitter account. Any presence you have online is a great opportunity to let the crowds – local and beyond – about your holiday specials.

Do a Little Decorating

Customize your website, blog, or Facebook page with a little Christmas décor. Add a graphic or two, or simply put a big “Happy Holidays” or other seasonal greeting front and center where all the visitors will see it.

Tell Them Where to Go

Put up a graphic, tab, or link on the navigation bar to direct your online visitors to your holiday specials. If you’re using Facebook, you can add a special tab designated as “Holiday Deals” or anything along that line. You can even make that tab the default-landing page for the holiday shopping season.

Talk About It

Have a blog? Put up a post each day describing one of your holiday specials, your great product, your discounts, and why what you’re offering will be the perfect gift. Get customer testimonials and put them on your blog, website, and Facebook page.

Use Twitter

Be sure to promote your holiday specials with your Twitter account. Use Twitter hash tags like #holidayshopping, #holidaydeals, #cyberweek, #shopping, and #deals. Offer good deals and great products, and make sure people know about them.

Take notes and don’t let another year go by without having online shopping options for your business. These same ideas translate nicely to Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s & Father’s Day, etc. – so get out there and grow your business with online sales options!

Image by Medmoiselle T.

Want to add a little holiday cheer to your 2010 holiday marketing? Try these 10 holiday marketing ideas to pump up the sales volume and spread a little holiday cheer all at the same time!

1. Customize your website and/or Facebook page with holiday decorations. It’s fairly easy to make (or find) a holiday graphic that you can customize for your business Facebook page or website, and it creates a festive spirit right there on the Internet, which is where more and more sales are happening (read this article to learn how long it takes for online marketing efforts to “move the needle”). So don’t save the holiday decor just for the brick-and-mortar storefront. Spread the spirit to your online space as well.

2. Have a holiday photo contest. You can theme the contest to fit in with your business, your products, and your services, or you can just keep it generic. Have people submit their photos via your Facebook page and simply “tag” your business page in the photo. You can have a contest for the “Cutest Family Christmas Picture” or “Best Santa Impersonator Photo” or anything holiday-themed. Play it up both in your store and online marketing, and provide a great prize for the winner.

3. Give holiday favors away with every purchase. Think simple and cheap here. A holiday favor can be very inexpensive, something as simple as pen with your logo on it, a holiday pin or sticker, or a individually wrapped chocolate. For the investment of a few pennies per purchase, you get to make a great impression with every customer who makes a purchase.

4. Offer holiday treats throughout the Christmas shopping season. Keep a fresh pot of coffee, a big urn of apple cider, and some holiday cookies out on a table, as a complimentary holiday treat for all your customers. It doesn’t matter if you’re a retail gift shop, an office, or a service-based business; sweet treats are welcome anytime, anywhere. And people who know they can get a cup of hot apple cider on a chilly day will return, and linger while they sip it.

5. Create a “12 Days of Your Product” package. This great marketing idea, from SmallBizTrends.com, gives you an easy, fun, and festive way to introduce customers to more of your products and services. Put together a 12-day package, starting small and building up, and sell it as a holiday special.

6. Send a special holiday e-card to your customer email list. Send it early – well before the actual holiday – and include a special coupon or discount as your way of saying thanks to your loyal customers.

7. Have a tree-trimming day in your brick-and-mortar store. Turn up the Christmas music, hang out signs, invite the public to participate, and have lots of sweet treats handy. Offer special “tree-trimming day only” sales, specials, and discounts.

8. Participate in your community’s holiday events. Is there a parade, a bazaar, a charity fundraiser, a night of carol singing and hot cocoa? Get out there and be part of it. Sponsor something, contribute something, provide some supplies and simply take part in person. Being an active part of your community is one of the best marketing moves you can make anytime of year.

9. Give away your holiday decorations (or some of them). Invest in a big, beautiful holiday wreath or centerpiece; then announce that, at the end of the season, one lucky customer will get to take it home to use in their own decor next year! Offer every customer the chance to enter to win that beautiful decoration; make it easy with slips of paper and a decorated box to put them in. All you need to collect are names and phone numbers (or email addresses). At the end of the season, have a little party, draw and announce the winner, and make even the post-holiday work a reason for celebration.

10. Simplify the holiday gift-buying process for your customers. Offer something like free gift-wrapping, free delivery, or an exceptionally lenient return policy for purchases. Anything you can do to make this time of the year simpler and less stressful for your customers will make it more likely that they spend their money in your store, and remember you when the new year rolls around.

P.S. Here is a post from 2006 on seasonal e-mail marketing ideas that I thought you’d also like.

Image by Howard Dickins.

The more you venture into social media and online marketing for your local business, there more you’ll hear about two particular parts of this online/social world: 1) content and 2) relationships. But what do these two terms mean for you and your business online and locally, for your brick-and-mortar store experience? Well, as it turns out, they mean quite a bit.

What Content Means for Your Business
“Content is King” was the cry of the Internet for the first decade or so, and though other forms of interaction rise in the online world, content still holds top position. Content simply refers to any sort of valuable resource, usually information-based, which is produced and shared online. It’s information in a digital format; the posts on a blog are content. The sound files of a popular podcast are its content. A downloadable eBook is content. Frequent updates and notes on a business Facebook page are content.
For your local business, content is the way you get to prospects and turn them into fans, friends, and lifelong customers. When you provide – online – valuable, relevant content that your target market is interested in receiving, you provide the gateway for interaction, connection, and. wait for it… relationships.

What Relationships Mean for Your Business
Let’s step back and look at what relationships mean for your business in the offline world. You don’t need a marketing primer to know that building relationships – real, solid relationships – gives you a solid foundation for ongoing business. The more people like you, know you, and like your products and services, the more they want to do business with you. Relationships also have the positive effect of extending your business into a whole new circle of prospects with every relationship you make. If people really love what you do, they share it with their friends. You form more relationships, you build more business, and on it goes.

Relationships in online marketing and social media are no different. In fact, they have the added quality of spreading faster and further than “offline” relationships can. Because sharing information, reviews, and opinions is so easy online, people are more apt to do it; and more people can read about their information, reviews, and opinions through social media sites like Facebook. Friends can share with friends and the information keeps going.

What Education-Based Marketing Means for Your Business
Education-based marketing is simply a strategy for sharing content that leads to building relationships? You start by sharing information (content) that is educational; it should tie in to your business somehow. For example, if you run a winery, you could start a blog all about growing grapes, choosing wines, pairing wine and food, finding good wines on a budget, storing wine, etc. Anything that provides educational information about a topic closely related to your business becomes valuable content that can lead people back to your business.

Perhaps you have a great local boutique selling home goods, decor, and gift items; your customer’s love your taste and you often get into long conversations about color schemes and decor. The natural step is to take your expertise online. Start up a Facebook page and start writing notes, sharing little tips and ideas. With very little initial set-up, you can easily start producing videos online, leading anyone who views through simple decorating tutorials or sharing tip, hints, and ideas.

The main idea is that before you try to sell, you simply share valuable, educational information. Your target market will naturally be drawn toward that information and will see you as an expert and a resource. It’s not marketing as much as it is simply being useful and thus, building relationships, but the end result is that all that usefulness creates valuable relationships, which end up building your business.

Photo credit: velkr0

Introducing my very old fashioned (using e-mail technology) “thank & recommend” strategy for building customer loyalty, customer visit frequency and improving retail or restaurant sales.

This system will help you lock in customers for life and earn business in the short term.

Before we get much further, please know that I get that life is busy and that there are lots of technical system (called trigger e-mail marketing) that do this in a more systematic way. But I want to encourage you that if things are at all sluggish in your business that you dedicate to working this system until things get better. Then, once they are better, set the calendar on autopilot naming days or weeks on a regular basis when you do it again for a short period to keep things flowing and extend your attitude of gratitude back to your customers (for example, once things are great again, pick the slowest night of the week for your restaurant or retail store – or choose to do this on the 2nd week of every month for five days, etc.). Customer loyalty, visit frequency and sales volume will improve.

Here’s the three step “thank and recommend” customer loyalty builder system:

1. Post lots of current products or menu items in an online photo album that is public. Post them on blog posts on your blog, Facebook photo albums, Flickr, or even Picasa.

2. Dedicate that every day for one week employees are required to take note (either using the technology tools of the point of sale system or old fashioned note-taking) of each customers e-mail address and what they bought.

3. At the end of each day, you, your employee or wait staff, should pen a short customized e-mail based on a standard system that will make it quick and easy… Here’s a template that you can follow to make the e-mails quick and easy to write.

Dear (insert first name of customer or Mr/Mrs/Ms Last name) -

I wanted to personally thank you for visiting us today at (insert name of business). Your support of our locally owned business really means a lot to us.

As I recall, you (choose purchased/enjoyed/ordered/took home) the (insert name of what they purchased).

Since you left, I’ve been thinking that you might also really like (insert name of three other potential products that are linked to their photo online). I included links to them here, but you can also check them out the next time you come in – which I hope is soon!

If you see something you’d like immediately, just hit reply, and I can answer any questions you might have or take care of your order over the phone tomorrow.

But don’t be a stranger – we always enjoy seeing you!

Thanks again for your business,

(insert your name)

P.S. In case you haven’t already, you can connect with us on Facebook at (insert direct link) and follow us on Twitter (insert direct link) for more ideas just like these. Thanks again!

Now – go get some sales and share your feedback in our comments below!

Photo Credit: a.drian