Internet Marketing - Matt Bailey [220]
For retention, Facebook creates an easy communication channel by allowing businesses to send updates to their fan base, as well as send invitations and messages. The Invitation and Messages features do a “double duty” in connecting to the fans of a business, because they send a notification to the person’s Facebook messages, as well as their personal email—a double notification. In many cases, this is more effective than a blast email, because emails can get caught up in spam filters or ignored. However, people make sure they are able to receive their Facebook emails and notifications. As with anything, though, this is best done in moderation. Too many invitations or messages can get you dropped by a fan, especially if the offers are not appealing or relevant.
Integrating Social Media for Marketing
For additional marketing, Facebook has become one of the most important sites for sharing links to videos. Within the context of the business fan page, videos can be hosted at YouTube, embedded on the company website or blog, and on Facebook. This is a great way of integrating social-media channels to point users to a specific destination. Too many businesses simply blast their messages and emails without a target destination or goal for their networks. Defining a target destination for the users, such as the company blog or Facebook page, is critical for integrating the numerous social-media sites available to businesses.
One “business” that does this particularly well is the rock-metal group Blind Guardian. Its Facebook page is the center of all its communication with fans. From personal experiences while touring to inspiration for songs or playlists, Blind Guardian uses Facebook as the central information source for the band. It uses the additional features on Facebook to add video, audio, and images customized to the pages.
You may not be a rock band as a business, but you can certainly see how many forms of media can be combined into making Facebook a destination for your customers—if that works for you.
LinkedIn provides the ability to maintain a professional network of people from past jobs, universities, associations, and groups. In addition to the networking, business-oriented questions and discussions are part of the website. These discussions can be part of the entire network or limited to specific groups.
Targeted to a business audience, it is a professional networking service that does not focus on the social aspect as much as a professional networking and discussion forum. When the world economy troubles hit in 2009, LinkedIn reported increased users and increased subscriptions and revenues as a result. People who were out of work were using LinkedIn to connect with other users and companies, and businesses were using LinkedIn to find new employees while saving on professional service (headhunter) fees.
The primary function of LinkedIn allows employers to search for potential employees by searching by job title, experience, or location. An employer can see the job history, resume, recommendations from other co-workers or clients, and links to personal websites or blogs. This is one of the most extensive lists of personnel available to an employer in one of the easiest professional profile search engines.
In addition, salespeople looking to get an introduction to a specific company can search their network to find common connections that could make an introduction. For salespeople, the ability to network millions of people within a connection or two provides an infinite opportunity to develop contacts and connections in a desired company or industry.
Microblogging
Microblogging is a term used to post a short announcement or update, similar to a blog, but within a certain character limit. Twitter is the most famous of these services; however, Facebook has placed itself as a major competitor to Twitter in this area. Even more confusing, people