Monday, October 10, 2011

Facebook / Google +

This week I looked into marketing through Facebook.  While researching I compiled this list of things necessary for success on Facebook:

  • Have a colorful and clear profile picture.  Whether it is of you, your product or someone with your product your photo needs to be clear and catchy.  Society does judge a book by its cover so put your best cover forward!
  • Build personal connections by commenting on members' activities that are relevant to your company.
  • Don't wait for people to find you, go out and start adding friends.
  • Use the photos and videos as marketing tools.  If you have a bakery, then show photos of what goes on in the kitchen.  
  • Take advantage of the Events feature.  If you have having an event or a sale then take the time to invite people.
  • Always look for ways to stand out.  Be unique and inventive in your postings.
  • Offer something special for those who "Like" you.  Whether it be a special page or a coupon, make sure there is an incentive.
These are just a few of the different suggestions that seemed to make the most sense to me.  I used them while reviewing the following Facebook pages.  I will list them in order from the one I liked most to least.

Welch's   I have always enjoyed the history of Welch's.  Started in the late 1800's because Mr. Welch was  very much against alcohol   I was happy to explore their Facebook page and was not at all disappointed.  I thought that the profile photo that they had was bright, clear and had a good contrast to it.  Once you like the page, you gain access to it.  There is a product page that profiles each of their different products which I liked a lot.  There is a page for fans with special offers, contests and events.  The posts were full of recipe and craft ideas as well as product coupons and talk of uses for Welch's products.  There was a lot of fan involvement and activity.  I though that this was a very well rounded and successful Facebook page.

Smoothie King  My wife moved up here from Florida where Smoothie King was part of her daily routine.  There was good and bad news for her when she got here.  Good news was that there was a Smoothie King, bad news was that it was in Medina.  So her daily turned into weekly and then monthly.  She is still a big fan of their Facebook page so I checked it out.  It also had a clear photo which drew me to it when I was searching for it so that was good.  As soon as I liked the page I was directed to a coupon.  The page itself lacks all of the wonderful content of the Welch's page, but still deserves a good mention.  Posts here were more focused exclusively on smoothies and/or nutrition and I noticed that replies to comments and questions were somewhat inconsistent.  They need to make sure to reply to everybody whenever possible.  When they pick and choose like they seem to, it could lead to people getting offended.  They did have a neat pledge that you could take and it looked like a way of signing up for their email list.  I thought that was clever.

Redbox  Since we dumped Netflix we have been using Redbox a lot so I thought it would be a good Facebook page to checkout.  It was my least favorite of these three though.  As soon as I liked the page I got a code for a free one night rental which was nice.  The page itself seemed to have way too much going on.  I get easily overwhelmed when there is too much content on the screen and this one did it for sure.  Their actual wall was okay, this was on the Redbox page.  They had a page of questions and unfortunately they questions seemed to be very outdated.  I don't think they should have the page on there if it is not going to be updated regularly.    There were a lot of comments from fans and Redbox even answered a few of them by name which I thought was nice.  I suppose that such a large company would have a difficult time getting that personal, but someone could be employed to do just that.

Facebook vs. Google +


I will admit that I have never heard of Google + before taking this class.  I have done some research and it seems that the two sites do have some major differences that companies will need to consider.  Google + allows you to target groups which will make it easier to send messages or announcements to certain groups of people.  You can also choose how you want your profile to look to certain groups of people.  It also seems to be more populated with professionals and preferred by males.  Google + seems to be much more secure and is backed by the Google name, something that Facebook could never achieve.  I found a very useful article which I have posted the link to below.  It explains that Google is aiming to create a central hub for accessing all of your online activities.  Personally I feel that all of these sites will be able to exist together for quite some time.  Facebook is not going anywhere anytime soon.  I feel that Facebook will always have an edge in allowing marketers to create a personal relationship with their fans.  Google + seems to be more sterile.  Google + is certainly worth looking into as it seems to be attracting a more mature, more business, less social crowd.  

Be sure to check out this article.

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