Social Media & Business - Facebook

Welcome back to our ongoing series of posts regarding social media and business. Recently we conducted an audit of our members and what social media tools they seem to prefer when attempting to reach their target audience. That led us to this attempt to help our members, and really anybody else reading, to learn some best practices and "how to" engage consumers with social media. Our first piece on this was "The Business Blog" and you can read that here.

When we looked at our membership the social media platform of choice seems to be Facebook. That's no surprise because the social media giant had, as of
the second quarter of 2019 a bit over 2.4 billion active users!

Oh But The Changes

Perhaps you've noticed that, over the past couple of years, your Facebook posts haven't been getting the traction they once received. Three years ago you could post something about your business and you might get hundreds of impressions and interactions. Today that number has shrunk. Why? Because Facebook wants you to pay for your content to be seen. It's a smart business decision and one of the reasons that Facebook stock is, today, trading at $183.70 a share. So, what can you do to make sure your content stands out on Facebook?  

Video and Facebook

In a recent study of over 777 million Facebook posts it was found that video remains the number one driver of consumer engagement. On average video posts on Facebook rack up at least 59% more engagement than other types. Looking at the content of the top 500 Facebook posts of 2018 we find that 81% of them were backed by video. Only 18% were backed by static images.

So, it's a clear indication that you should be spending some time posting short video clips about your business. And, because video is so easy to shoot...why not. Plus you don't need all kinds of fancy gear to make this happen. You can start with your cell  phone video. (We'll have an entire blog about that coming up.)

Reactions to Facebook Posts

The same study looked at reactions to Facebook posts and found that emotion rules. People interact with content they find funny or inspirational. That doesn't mean that everybody loves funny or inspirational content and you have to be careful, given the social climate we find ourselves in, what you post. Remember the goal is to polish your brand. It's always best to know what your target demographic finds engaging...which really is rule number one when it comes to social media marketing.

Prime Example of Engaging Content

Last year the Norfolk Police Department received more than 3.2 million engagements and grew their audience to well-over 180,000 fans. How? The Lip Sync Challenge. Here is a link to their video. But, promise to come back!

OK, that's pretty cool and I'm not suggesting that you get your crew together for a lip sync challenge but what consumers want to see is the human side of your business. Sure you might be selling an axle but what else goes on in your company that is engaging and fun?

How Too - It's Big

We've got a couple of members that do some excellent "How to" videos. And, according to the study this stuff works well too. When you are helping your customers find ways to fix something not only do you get the credit but it's likely that post will be shared with others. I know you have some "fixes" that could benefit others.  It's not always about "selling" but it is about connecting.

Behind the Scenes

Engage your customers in the "behind the scenes" of what goes on in your business. People buy from people they know, like and trust. You've got to have some great stories that you can record and then share. Right?  It takes work but it really does work.

This post has already gotten a bit long...so let's break it off here and next time some suggestions as to how you can take some great video with excellent sound on a budget you can live with.  

Thanks for reading!

Michael Libbie, a long time member of the National Tractor Parts Dealership Association, creates content for our association. If you wish to comment, feel free. And, here is a link to that 2019 Study of Facebook in case you want a deeper dive. 

Social Media and Business - The Business Blog

In an earlier post for the National Tractor Parts Dealer Association I wrote about doing an "audit" of our member sites and their use of social media for business. This is a continuing series that I hope will help our membership fully understand, appreciate and utilize the power of social media to promote their
business and sell more products and services. Each post will cover a social media example that you may wish to incorporate into your marketing efforts. Let's go!

The Business Blog

This can be the building block and cornerstone of everything you do regarding social media content. Creating a blog for your business allows you to do a number of things like:

• Telling Your Story - Nobody knows your business like you. Writing a blog about your business allows you to share your story with customers old and new. The best thing is that you have control over the story line and that is important.
• Improving Search Engine Finds - If you have a static website, something that doesn't often change, your site will be overlooked by the search engine algorithms that are constantly seeking new content. If your site doesn't change search engines will pass it by and if you can't be found you can't do business.
• Giving the "Back-Story" of Business - Look, your customers know what you do but so many are interested in how you do...what you do. With a business blog you can tell real stories about how you've impacted customer needs. You can even use the words of your customers to polish your brand.
• Creating Content for Other Platforms - By writing short blogs and then using other social media tools to point customers back to your website becomes a win for connecting those tools back to your business.

OK...but "How do I go about getting this done?" I hear your pain and frustration. Let's start with the basics:

• Find A Blog Host - This might involve getting your IT people involved. NTPDA uses Typepad as our source but there are many more. If you are using a WordPress design they have a blog "plug in". Costs for blog hosting range from free to $20 a month. It's an investment if you use it.
• Incorporate the Blog - Once you've found a comfortable format have your IT professional or "webmaster" incorporate it onto the homepage of your website. That way the first few lines are always seen and you are always updating your site. You can see how that is done on our NTPDA.com site.
• Know Your Audience - You know who your customers are and who you want to reach. Keep your blog posts directed to your target. And, remember this isn't always about "selling" it's about telling a story that meets the interests of those you want to reach.
• Create a Calendar - This is the strategic part of blogging. If you write it down, it gets done. Let's say you want to write one blog post a week. Set aside that time on your calendar and write a draft in a word document. Keep it to under 400 words. 
• Take Notes - I often hear, "But, I don't know what to write about!" That's why you should be taking notes between blog posts. What happened over the  past week that folks might find interesting? Jot it down and then go back to it during the time you've set aside for writing.
• Use Photos - People respond to images. Incorporate photos into your post. Once you get it going you might be able to embed video. The creative side of this doesn't have many limits.

I know it sounds like work...and it is...but if you want to expand your sales and polish your brand the Business Blog can go a long way to that goal.

Thanks for reading and if you've got comments or questions feel free to drop them into our comment section.

Michael

 

Michael P. Libbie is a marketing professional who has been a member of NTPDA for nearly 20 years and has been the author of many of our blog posts.

 

 

 

Social Media and Business

Over the years, according to our count, we've done maybe six or seven seminars about business and social media. We've had our NTPDA members speak to the issue and brought in some social media experts. It was all meant help our members better engage with their customers and, in the end, sell more product.

Last week we thought it might be interesting to do a social media assessment of our regular members. You know, see what social media channels they are on, what they are doing with social media and get an idea of the utilization. It was very informative. We looked at blogging, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

The results were mixed.

We didn't find many of our regular members who blogged. There were some that use YouTube and fewer who used Twitter or Instagram. It seems the social media platform of choice is Facebook with over 60% of our members engaged there.

We next looked at how often our members posted and what they posted about. We found, not surprisingly, that most were featuring products for sale and some special sales they were having. Very few members who posted on Facebook posted much else. The YouTube users, and there were a couple, did a mixture of "behind the scenes" and "how to" videos and many of those were done well.

We did find lots of Twitter accounts that were started a couple of years ago but then abandoned after only a few dozen tweets. Some members link their Facebook posts to Twitter so when they post on Facebook those posts automatically go right to their Twitter feed.

It was enough data to get us to thinking that maybe it's time to do a refresher, here on our Blog, about best social media practices. What each platform is good at and what they should be used for. You see, each really has a different audience.  

So, that's what we're going to do.  Over the next several weeks we'll post some helpful thoughts about each platform and offer up some best practices. We're hoping it will help and we promise not to go too deep into the weeds.

In the meantime if you've got thoughts about the use of social media for business let us know with a comment here. Just go to the comment section and post your thoughts about social media. We'll not make those public because, well not everybody wants to air their laundry. Right?

Thank you for being a member of NTPDA. We hope you'll find this information valuable.