Jamie Riddell

Jamie Riddell, chief executive of Suffolk-based Digital Tomorrow Today, a future-looking digital marketing consultancy, explains how businesses can make effective use of Facebook. Jamie publishes a Directors’ Briefing to monthly premium subscribers covering the latest digital trends and how businesses can harness them today.

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IT HAS been hard not to hear about Facebook recently. With a US$5billion IPO coming soon, and the approaching 1billion global users mark, Facebook is a hot property.

The growth in users and revenue has has been down to smart monetisation of this global social network. No longer just a network of friends, Facebook now offers many opportunities for East Anglian businesses to benefit from this social giant.

Its size and potential means that all businesses actively seeking to grow customers or engage and retain existing customers should consider Facebook as part of their marketing mix. Here are five ways your business can harness Facebook.

: : Place Facebook Likes on your page

You will see on many web pages the Facebook “like” button, or a button that shows you how many of your Facebook friends like this page. These buttons connect your website to Facebook to help other users to share your content. Anyone “liking” your page will automatically share that “like” on to their Facebook profile which in turn has the potential to expose your site to their friends. The more likes you have, the bigger the potential audience you can reach.

On certain sites, like our EADT pages, you will see the “like” changed to “recommend”. This is the same function with a different word. Facebook allows you to use either; “recommend” usually for B2B and “like” for B2C.

The Facebook like function also impacts search results in Microsoft’s Bing search engine. The more likes you have the greater potential for your site to gain more exposure in Bing. www.facebook.com/badges

: : Create a Facebook Group

A business can use Facebook Groups to create closed groups of staff members or for exclusive connections between business and VIP customers.

Groups by their nature are more for collaboration than sales and offer the ability to be open (anyone can join) or secret (only invited users know about it.) A good use for groups could be consultation on a local business effort, to connect disparate staff members or to offer exclusive ‘VIP’ access to key customers or clients. www.facebook.com/groups

: : Create a Facebook Fan Page

First lets ignore the word “fan” as its a litte misleading. A Facebook page allows any business to create their own space on Facebook. With more than 25 fans this page can also have its own address like www.facebook.com/digitaltomorrowtoday.

At its most basic function the page can include business images, website links, about details and opening times. The wall function allows businesses to share updates with their fans and start a dialogue. A clothes shop in Bury can share photos of their latest range and invite comment or question. A pub in Ipswich can list their latest events for your diary, or ask what beer they should stock next.

The “Wall” (the function that allows these updates) becomes an important part of the business Facebook presence as each update appears in the users timeline. The more engaging the content, the better chance they will have at reaching more consumers and growing the fan base.

With a little design effort, businesses can create richer, more dynamic content for Facebook users to enjoy and richer experiences to include competitions, embedded video and more.

: : Advertise on Facebook

You may have seen adverts on the right hand side of your Facebook timeline. These are usually targeted ads based on your profile.

When you set up a Facebook [personal] account you are asked for details such as your age, location and interests. Advertisers can use this data for targeting. Some of the most obvious targeting is marital status. Many wedding related companies will run adverts against people with the marital status as ‘engaged’. This targeting can work with most anything you can think of, like Ipswich Town fans in Norwich (Facebook says there about 300 of them.)

These adverts are designed to be as relevant as possible but Facebook does not share your personal details, so it is not directed at you personally.

Adverts can be bought on either a cost per impression (view) or cost per click basis. Based on your targeting criteria and potential size, Facebook will recommend the target cost. YOU can define the budget and pay with a card to ensure you manage your budgets. www.facebook.com/ads