Twitter, Facebook & Social Networking for Business

sjr4x4 · #1 (**permalink**) 23-09-09, 11:35 AM

So how do people find social networking sites when related to business. Are they worth the time investment, or are your efforts better placed in other forms of online marketing?

I've had a dabble with facebook, and tried some advertising, which is pretty cheap and generates clicks, but didn't generate any business.

Have an ongoing experiment with twitter, but the jury is out at the moment as to how effective it is.

Be interesting to hear of any other experiances.

Kip FX Design · #2 (**permalink**) 23-09-09, 06:33 PM

Facebook is getting a bit uneven now, was mostly for friends and family when I was travelling SE Asia, now I am back and working, it has more and more work related people adding me and joining, I don't mind, the real friends understand.

As to twitter, I am pooh with it, the wife uses hers and has more than twice the amount of followers I do, but then she is prettier too! We do get a few links from Twitter, but only around 20-30, facebook & google still tops for us!

garde · #3 (**permalink**) 25-09-09, 03:39 PM

I know a lot of people now separate facebook accounts and have one for work and one for personal use. I suppose its the worry of overspill from work and personal life, or displaying to many personal details to people you don't really know.

Like steve, I'm not convinced ref the business use, but watching steves efforts with interest

sjr4x4 · #4 (**permalink**) 29-10-09, 05:00 PM

Well, from a cynical start, I progressed with a new Twitter background thanks to Kip and actually started watching how different people use twitter.

Targeting and following entrepreneurs and business people has given me a following of over 700, and targeted newsworthy tweets have resulted in traffic on both buisness directories and this forum. We've also made a couple of sales on the UK Directory which I'm still baffled by!

So I'm less cynical, and now starting to appreciate the appeal and power of twitter.

Sending constant sales stuff just doesn't work, but link to something interesting or perceived as interesting and you have an interesting traffic generator.

I have a long way to go, and looks like a lot more to learn, but it's progress!

As always, be good to hear any other feedback, good or bad.

I may even tweet this

TrangSLe · #5 (**permalink**) 24-11-09, 03:01 AM

I would be interested to know the verdicts on the business related aspects of those Social sites as well. My kids have told me about advertising on those sites, but I'm still a bit doubtful. I do not want to miss out on an opportunity if it does work. Where is that crystal ball of mine? Oh, it's in the shop. That's it!

Any experience you can share with me would be educational.

Kip FX Design · #6 (**permalink**) 24-11-09, 09:14 AM

Hi TrangSLe, I think it all depends what your business is, I know that with B2B facebook (In my opinion) is a waste of time, whereas twitter is bringing the work in on a B2B side, I do know of a lot of B2C's using Facebook advertising and doing rather well out of it.

My (personal) thoughts on Facebook have changed dramatically, I used to have it open all day, now once a week is more common, and my work has picked up no end, Facebook draws you in (Hence why it is so succesful).

I would certainly not rule out setting up a fan/business page on there, and linking it to your site, but thats as far as I would go. (Can always help if needed)

Twitter is a slow and steady lead gatherer, I know from Steves blog that he can now thank Twitter for signed up and paid clients, though I could not tell you how many.

I say Twitter, Twitter and thrice Twitter!

Hope this helps

TrangSLe · #7 (**permalink**) 24-11-09, 05:36 PM

Kip, I have a software business that provides Ambulatory Medical Software systems for medical practices. It has been a slow start so far. As I'm still new at this page ranking concept with Google, Yahoo, and the likes, I know that my targeted traffic can't be generated from those search engines anytime soon. I'm diligently working towards that goal, but in the mean time, I would like try out all other available options. I will give those sites a try. Thank you much for your input.

Kip FX Design · #8 (**permalink**) 24-11-09, 07:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrangSLe

Kip, I have a software business that provides Ambulatory Medical Software systems for medical practices. It has been a slow start so far. As I'm still new at this page ranking concept with Google, Yahoo, and the likes, I know that my targeted traffic can't be generated from those search engines anytime soon. I'm diligently working towards that goal, but in the mean time, I would like try out all other available options. I will give those sites a try. Thank you much for your input.

I have always found people doing their own SEO achieve a lot more, unless a huge corporate, I have a regular client that I do design work for that spends roughly $1500 a day on his Pay Per Click, but his organic SEO he does himself too, and took his little West Mids company Internationally!

Stick with it, loads of good help on here if and when its needed buddy.

biz-angel · #9 (**permalink**) 25-11-09, 12:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrangSLe

I would be interested to know the verdicts on the business related aspects of those Social sites as well. My kids have told me about advertising on those sites, but I'm still a bit doubtful. I do not want to miss out on an opportunity if it does work. Where is that crystal ball of mine? Oh, it's in the shop. That's it!

Any experience you can share with me would be educational.

Hi there TrangSLe

Social networking is a powerful tool that used properly can yeild low cost solutions. Theres no great secret, more a case of testing and see what works for you.

Unlike other marketing medium, social networking is either free or low cost, so the key is to experiment.

As Kip suggested, on Facebook, set up fan pages, I'm sure MySpace has similar functionality. But the most powerful tool of the moment has to be Twitter.

Sign yourself up, search for people who would be possible customers if you have a particular demographic, follow them, and they will follow you back. Right a decent Bio, and your weblink, then Tweet gently! No full on sales messages, no spam.

If in doubt, watch other peoples tweets, look at people with thousands of followers, and look at their style of writing. Waht do they tweet about, can you adapt a simialr style. Open a second account and experiment, make your mistakes on a test account.

So its all trial and error I'm afraid, but if you master it, the rewards are there.

Good hunting!

Chardonay · #10 (**permalink**) 03-02-10, 01:16 PM

Facebook and Twitter are both massive in terms of reach, so surely both are worth a shot. Here's some stats:

- Facebook has 350 million active users globally and they claim 50% log on daily and more than 700,000 local businesses have business pages on Facebook.
- Twitter has 75 million user accounts.
- LinkedIn has 11 milllion users across Europe.

You have to take these reported stats with a pinch of salt somewhat, but the scale is surely an opportunity, whatever business you're in.

sjr4x4 · #11 (**permalink**) 03-02-10, 05:55 PM

Hello Chardonay, welcome to the forums! Wot a great name, wanted to call my daughter that but the wife said no

Impressive stats, and your right its all about reach, but I wonder about the type of audience. For a business directory, we want to engage business owners, so after trialing facebook advertising, although pretty cheap, it didn't generate any results, which is proberly a reflection of the facebook audience.

I can see it working for other types of business.

Kevin.Wiles · #12 (**permalink**) 07-02-10, 06:13 PM

As far as paying for advertising goes on Facebook I don't rate it I tried it for a company who targets 18-30 yr olds the prime age for users on facebook and most of them just liked the thing we did get traffic but no sales.

I do thing all social networking helps your website as it helps increase the word of your website and will generate new clicks etc

I only really worry with Facebook, Ecademy, Twitter, Digg, Stumble, 4 Networking, UKBF and this forum.

Kerrmunications · #13 (**permalink**) 02-03-10, 08:50 PM

I've just been putting the finishing touches into a presentation I'm giving tomorrow on social media for business.

I will précis it for you (it's 45 minutes long!). I think the most important things to remember are:

Have a strategy and stick to it - make sure you know what you want to achieve (specifics are important), who you want to reach, where you want to talk to them, how you are going to measure the results
After you answer the above, it should be apparent which media to choose - the biggest or most appropriate for business, however, are - LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogs and forums. But others like SlideShare, Flikr, Ning, Ping, Ecademy and Plaxo may be relevant.
Make sure your messages are consistent with other marketing
Listen, monitor, engage, talk, create and respond to conversations - don't just try to sell - follow the 70:20:10 rule on Twitter:- 70% good info and links, 20% retweets, 10% self-promotion
Create a linked strategy - write a blog post, tweet about it, link to it on your FB page, update your LinkedIn status about it, etc.
Don't expect it to result in immediate sales - guide your followers/connections through a four-step sales process: like me, know me, trust me, (and maybe, one day) pay me
Don't forget to measure the results and feed back the info into your strategy/objectives, reassessing them where necessary

OK, so we're done with the theory. What about in practice?

For me:

I've done some FB advertising - lots of clicks (and therefore payments to FB) - but no enquiries yet;

I tweet as much as I can, but I've found it hard to have enough to use this media properly;

I've found LinkedIn to be great - lots of contacts, a couple of expressions of interest from out of the blue, even a few meetings with prospects - but no actual business as yet;

Forums - my favourite - I enjoy the interaction and helping people out with advice. The investment of my time has paid me back with a fair few pieces of work so far.

Kip FX Design · #14 (**permalink**) 02-03-10, 08:54 PM

I will be biased here, but a good twitter background will engage more followers, it shows a seriousness and commitment that you will still be there in a week and not forget all about it! If you are doing a presentation on it, Twitter backgrounds are essential for twitter! Kip FX Design - Twitter Background Tutorial | Kip FX Design is a background tutorial, but also tells you how and why you should use one.

If you get many people wanting one, I am sure we could come to some arrangement!

!

Kerrmunications · #15 (**permalink**) 02-03-10, 10:18 PM

I couldn't agree with you more about the Twitter background. My presentation does include that piece of advice (there's a detailed bit on each of the main social media for business and how best to use each of them).

sjr4x4 · #16 (**permalink**) 02-03-10, 10:39 PM

Great post Claire, some good points.

Had exactly the same with FB advertising, bucket loads of clicks, but no conversions. Only good news it's pretty low cost so not an expensive experiment, maybe its works for some. Love linked in, but more from a nosy see where everyone is now kind of way. I don't think its a great business tool for my kind of business.

Am definately a twitter convert since I started this thread, bit of steering from Kip helped! But will confess to being lazy/not enough time and letting the forum auto tweet for me. I think its a fine line but doesn't seem to scare too many people away, and seems to draw fresh peeps to the forum.

But still early days!

Good luck with the presentation, hope it goes well. Supposed to be doing one myself on SEO in the next couple of weeks, not a fan of public speaking, fluff my lines and go bright red

Kerrmunications · #17 (**permalink**) 06-03-10, 09:26 AM

Steve - what's your Twitter name?

I'm @ClaireKerr - need to add it to my signature.

sjr4x4 · #18 (**permalink**) 08-03-10, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kerrmunications

Steve - what's your Twitter name?

I'm @ClaireKerr - need to add it to my signature.

Steve Richardson (MyLocalForums) on Twitter

Kerrmunications · #19 (**permalink**) 08-03-10, 06:43 PM

Derr - I already knew that - I'm already following you!

sjr4x4 · #20 (**permalink**) 08-03-10, 11:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kerrmunications

Derr - I already knew that - I'm already following you!

c'mon its Monday

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