Facebook Events is an application that lets you schedule your business events from a Fan Page and invite friends and fans to attend. Events can be “Public” in which case anyone can RSVP and attend or “Private”, which only allows invited guests to RSVP. Either way this app is a great way to help get the word out about your next event! Thanks to Becky O’Brien of Optimal Wellness for helping me test the process!
Add an event from your Fan Page
Sign in to Facebook and go to your Fan Page. One of the tabs should be “Events”. If you don’t see an Events tab click on the “>>” tab or the “+” to see more options, “Events” may be there if you have other tabs. Your Events tab will show and at the top right is a button to “Create Event”. This will bring up a page to enter your event information.
After you fill in the event information it’s time to invite people. Realize that the people that you are able to invite are “Friends” from your Personal Profile, not Fans. You might want to filter and select from that list or choose not to invite people at this point if it is a business event. You can always post and share from your Fan Page after creating the event. Don’t forget to add an image to your event so that you don’t get the standard event picture! When you create the event it builds and event page that allows people to post comments and see who else has been invited and who has accepted, if you click on the boxes to allow those things.
When you are done entering the event information, click the button to “Create Event”. This will bring up your new event page. From here you can invite more Friends (once again from your Personal Profile) using the link on the left under the picture. At the top there is a link to edit the page if you need to make changes and…..
Update Your Fans!
Clicking the link to update your fans will bring up an update box for your event that lets you invite your friends to the event. You have the capability to do some filtering on your list by region, gender and age. Add a subject and message then click send. Your friends will see the invitation in their news feed and have the opportunity to comment, share and RSVP directly from the post.
You can send additional updates as your event approaches. You might want to consider planning this out and using additional updates to announce speakers, VIP guests that have accepted the invitation, door prizes that have been contributed or other special news relative to the event.
Sharing Events
The best thing about social media is the ability to quickly share information. This is true of Facebook Events as well. When you see events posting to your News Feed from your network, click on the share button to send to your friends if you think they may benefit. When posting and updating your events, encourage your fans to share with their friends!
Please comment with any additional tips or lessons learned while using the Facebook Events Application.
Yesterday, my friend Becky O’Brien from Optimal Wellness recommended that I write something about why a small business owner, even an independent distributor should use social media. To keep it simple I’ll focus on Facebook, but the same general principles apply across applications with some unique benefits for each.
Customers are using Facebook and don’t seem to mind brief, useful posts from businesses they “like” – this sets up for you to have multiple touch points with a lot of customers and potential customers every day. Social Media is still a “passive” media where people understand a little promotion and it’s acceptable if it’s kept short and there is value mixed in. But, don’t get greedy by overdoing it.
Businesses like “word-of-mouth” business and Facebook is “word-of-mouth” times 100 – Let’s say your average fan has 100 friends and that you have 200 fans, not a bad start for a small, local business. If even 2 fans share one of your posts you have the potential to hit 400 people with your post! Build up your fans and you can see how quickly that number could jump. Oh, and these are word-of-mouth referrals FROM people who have chosen to “like” you, TO people who have chosen to be their friend!
Facebook advertising can be tightly targeted to a specific audience – I get Facebook advertising targeted to Naval Academy Graduates because it is in my profile. You can target by location, age, sex, relationship status….. That means if I sell wedding dresses I can target engaged women, ages 18-30 and filter out those who are already fans. That’s tight!
Facebook is warming up to business more each day, and I highly recommend jumping on the band wagon before business dominates and people start looking for less commercial alternatives. If you are just getting started remember to be consistent without being overbearing, spread posts throughout the day and week and add posts with value that are worth reading and sharing.
I’ll close with a link to a simple example of how my sharing on Foursquare, combined with Facebook to create awareness for a local small business. The post is
I was listening to the Tony Kornheiser show this morning and they read through a direct mail piece that Tony received from the Washington Kastles Tennis Team. The letter was a form invitation from the owner of the Kastles to an upcoming event and seemed to be pretty well done for a direct mail piece. Tony and the crew absolutely ripped the Kastle organization for it though. The problem – the letter started out “Dear Anthony”.
Boy, if you could take back a direct mail piece!
Most of us understand the methods for gathering names and information for direct mail, and that there are many mistakes in the names, titles or even gender. Where the Kastles really messed up though is that they didn’t use public relations to address the media audience separate from the direct mailing to the general population.
For those not familiar with the Tony Kornheiser show, it is a daily talk show on a local DC sports radio station. They talk some sports, but it is more about entertainment and, well, just stuff. The Kornheiser crew/posse/team (what exactly are they?) loves to latch on to a product or company, for good or bad, and use it as conversation fodder throughout the show. At the end of the show there is an email pile-on where the audience sends in their take on the day’s topics, usually dominated by the product or company in the spot light. You can imagine (or you can probably go listen) how much fun they had with a letter from a local sports group to a national sports celebrity and local sports icon that started out “Dear Anthony”.
When you are planning your marketing campaigns, especially for upcoming special events, do some public relations planning first. How would this have been different if before Tony received this impersonal, promotional invitation he had received a personally signed invitation, or even a phone call, from the owner or a public relations person? Do you know the ten or twenty media people in your industry who have the power to make or ruin your day because they have an audience? You should be communicating with these folks through public relations.
Many small business owners mistakenly limit public relations to periodic press releases about their business. PR is much more than that, and unless you are a company popular enough to be newsworthy, self reporting press releases are useless. Public relations is about knowing and building relationships with the media and providing information and resources that help them provide more value to their audience. Of course your hope is that the end result reflects positively on your business.
The Prince William Chamber of Commerce is hosting a Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations Strategies conference in September and the focus this year is on Public Relations. Wouldn’t it be great if Tony Kornheiser somehow found and read this obscure blog post and offered to come to the September 22nd as the keynote speaker! “Mr. Anthony”, you can email me at jlgorman@sigmabizlearning.com if you’re interested. It’s more likely that they read this post and publically humiliate me for my poor grammar and shameless use of their name to promote my blog and MAPS event!
Last year I attended a Brown Bag seminar at the Prince William County – Greater Manassas Chamber of Chamber of Commerce in Manassas, VA. The topic was on “networking” and presented by a couple of the chambers best. As we covered the different tips and tricks for how to work a room, how to target the right people, polite ways to transition between leads and setting goals I noticed something. With about 20 people in the room, about half were heavy participants in the conversation, adding comments and suggestions and asking questions – these are the networkers. The other half were content to sit quietly, listen and hope that they didn’t somehow get the spotlight turned on them – these are the non-networkers! Which one of these is you?
The sharp contrast struck me and I realized that most of the great networking tips out there today are either to help people who are already natural networkers improve or require a non-networker to change the core essence of who they are, unlikely in a one hour seminar. So, I decided to build a class around some tips and techniques that I have used to overcome my life as a “Non-networker”. The class is called “Business Networking for the Non-networker” and is offered free at Sigma College of Small Business, both live in person and live online.
Non-networker Networking Tips:
Realize the importance of the network – Continually remind yourself why networking is part of your marketing strategy. It will help your patience, discipline and courage.
Time and Touches – A quality network takes time and multiple touch points
Referral Principle – A new contact’s referral is more likely than their business
Meet Small, Build Big – Use small groups to meet new people then reinforce in big groups
Forced Opportunity Principle – Develop techniques where an easy action forces networking.
When you approach building a professional network as a long term marketing strategy rather than a quick sell opportunity, it removes some of the stress in meeting new people. It puts you in the mind set of building new relationships that may result in a direct sale, but more importantly will probably result in multiple referrals!
The class “Business Networking for the Non-networker” is a free class offered by Sigma College of Small Business. If you are interested in attending live in person or live online get more information here.
To summarize Twitter Power by Joel Comm (@joelcomm) in one word, I’d have to pick “relationship”. And, the more I read and learn about this new magic marketing fairy dust called social networking, the more I see that these are just new tools for good networkers to be great networkers. Joel does a great job of laying out how we can specifically use Twitter to help build relationships and our networks.
Building Relationships
Building relationships is a theme throughout the book and most of the techniques and tips are focused on improving your capability to build relationships. Here are a few of the techniques I thought were especially helpful and unique:
Reply and Retweet – this is how you use Twitter to have discussions with your Twitter network and how to gently refer and recommend their thoughts to your followers. Joel stresses the importance of the reply and re-tweet throughout the book in much the same way I stress listening and referring in my business networking classes
Build Your Profile, Then Your Followers – When you sign up for Twitter is quickly takes you to a screen where you can search your email accounts to find potential followers. Joel recommends skipping this step and coming back to it after you have built your profile and followed a few others to get a feel for Twitter. It’s the networking equivalent to establish a good message and listen first before speaking.
Add Value – by providing information, discussion and a personal touch along with your promotion. If all you provide is promotion, your followers will not see the value and will most likely drop you. Joel offers some great techniques for mixing the types of tweets and setting up a schedule that adds value.
Twitter Power was a pretty good and easy read, and in addition to these and other techniques for use, Joel provides directions on how to customize your Twitter site, build applications around Twitter and more. He closes the book with some good reference chapters, including third party tools to leverage your Twitter presence and a 30-day calendar that reinforces the techniques throughout the book.
Thanks Joel for sharing your knowledge and experience in a way that was both understandable and enjoyable. I recommend this book for anyone who wants to make Twitter part of their marketing strategy.
This post is dedicated to my good friend Tom Schultz, CEO of Acuity Audiovisual. He gave it to me so he wouldn’t have to be on Twitter, but I’ll get him there eventually! thanks Tom
A great week of classes, networking and even a College Road Trip to Ithaca, NY, Boston and Fitchburg, MA. (see Five Lessons from Katie).
Lou "The Hot Dog Guy" Cassaniti
Keep It Simple!
I’m a person who tends to over-think things. It drives my wife nuts, especially when I do it aloud. In Ithaca, NY this week my daughter and I were walking along the Ithaca Commons looking for the perfect lunch spot and came across Lou. Beef, pork or chicken and with or without onions and peppers. Doesn’t get much simpler than that – great product, perfect delivery.
Pork Sausage with a Coke - $3.50
Lou even added additional value when he pegged us as a prospective student family, shared next year’s tuitions for the three nearest schools and told us that it gets cold up there, so be ready and don’t complain. Lou’s community relation event is outlined on his chalk board and shared with each sale. He is expecting 600 people lined up for “dogs to help dogs” Hot Dog Day 2010 on Friday May 7th, benefiting the SPCA of Tompkins County. Good luck Lou and thanks for lunch!
Let Me Help You Stop Crying – Commuincating Our True Benefits
Terry Dixon of Castle Realty shared a great story at Piedmont Professionals Wednesday morning. A friend called and was sharing how she was frustrated to the point of daily tears because they couldn’t get contracts down on houses quickly enough before other buyers snatched them up. Terry politely asked if she was using a realtor. When she said no, he offered to help her to stop crying every day. Way to go Terry! We should all be able to listen and share what we do in terms of the real end result and benefit we can deliver to our customers.
Don’t Keep People in a Box
I invited my wife Gayle, owner of All Things Musical (music lessons), to her first ever business networking event on Wednesday morning. Gayle needs little beyond word of mouth to keep her schedule full, and she was a bit hesitant when I told her the format included getting up and introducing herself. I wasn’t sure what to expect because I see her as a musician, teacher, wife and mother, not as a business owning marketer. When it was her turn, I offered to make the introduction, but she declined, stood up and absolutely nailed her just under 60 second elevator pitch, completely unrehearsed! Wow, a whole new dimension to love and respect about my better half. She may be teaching the next “Elevator Pitch” class! Is there a family member or employee that you’ve placed in a box? Put them into new environments and challenge them with new ideas and education. You might be surprised at how much more they can do.
This is Katie Venetsky. Katie graduates in 23 days with a degree in Sociology from Ithaca College in New York – Congratulations Katie!
Katie is one of the students at Ithaca that leads tours around campus for prospective students, and we met this week during the college road trip I took with my daughter Alyssa. The design of the tour and Katie’s great delivery provided some useful insight for all.
Listen First. Introductions were the first part of the tour, and each prospective student, not parents, gave their name, where they were from and their planned major. I know she actually listened too, because she used that information throughout the tour. Sigma College classes on networking and social networking place high emphasis on listening – and taking a genuine interest, when you meet anyone.
Connect With Your Audience. From the introductions it was clear the tour was for the students. It wasn’t rude or dismissive in any way, but it said “prospective student, “you are the customer here. I respect you as a decision making individual, not a kid, and your interests are what matter to me”. Although subtle, it stood out to me because it’s not something our teens hear very often. When you and your people (especially technical people) talk to prospective customers, do they meet them at their level with respect and understanding. Listen to those conversations from the customer’s perspective and watch their body language closely for a good indication.
Make It Personal. In our little group that morning we had interests in physical therapy, photography, football, ladies basketball and an undecided major. On our tour Katie was sure to talk about sports medicine internships, student photographs in the school paper, the “Exploratory” program for the undecided and the proximity of dormitories to the specific colleges that were mentioned in the group. Most impressively, as we were walking past a group of students, she stopped and introduced the prospective football player to a friend of hers that is on the football team. I know that wasn’t part of the tour script! Make sure that your are presenting your product with the focus on your customer’s interests and needs, demonstrating that you listened, care and have a path to meet their needs.
Any Questions? Katie mentioned that she holds the tour guide record for most times asking “are there any questions” in a tour. Keep asking questions. You never know what additional opportunity you will uncover and giving answers builds trust and credibility.
Prepare Your Team to Sell. Ithaca College Office of Admissions did a great job with the whole tour program. They picked the right people, designed a good process and then trained Katie with the information and skills she would need to provide a top notch tour. How is your process for marketing and sales? Do your people have the tools, materials and skills they need to deliver a great tour? More importantly – are they the right people?
Thanks Katie and Ithaca College for the wonderful tour and for the insight we can all apply to our marketing and sales. Congratulations and best of luck!
Since 2008 I have been trying to figure out how my small business customers can more easily create and use online video as a marketing tool. However, the ability for novices to develop good videos for business and the cost for a professional have been obstacles.
The Wait is Over!
Over the last couple weeks I’ve spent some time with Abe Erickson at Ugly Chair Productions, learning from an expert about what’s really happening with online video. Last week he explained how video content is going to have a huge impact on search engine indexing (see “What I Learned 4/17“), and told me about his newest product, INTRO|vid.
This week Abe was gracious enough to let me be a part of the new product launch and get my own INTRO|vid, which you can check out. For less than $300 you can have a 2-3 minute introduction video filmed in a professional studio and produced by an expert staff.
My Experience
I went over to the Ugly Chair Production Studio in Manassas, VA on Wednesday morning. The only preparation was to pick something to wear that wasn’t green, well within my onscreen talent. They set me up in the studio and asked a series of great questions to get me talking naturally about Sigma College of Small Business while the camera rolled. The questions they asked generated all the key points that I would have scripted. The whole video shoot took less than 30 minutes and they posted my INTRO|vid within 48 hours. AND, DID I MENTION THEY DO THIS STARTING AT LESS THAN $300 DOLLARS!
Wows
You can see for yourself – that’s what is great about video
Quality of the video, especially considering my lack of talent
Ability to nail the key points about my business
The price and more importantly the short time to shoot and produce
Pows
The only thing I would improve in this is me. As they move forward, I’m sure Abe will do a little coaching to us amateurs about being on camera.
While I was shooting the video I learned that Abe and his lovely production assistant Anna both have a business education. I’m convinced that is why they were able to come up with such great questions and then focus the video down to the best message for my business. I think this is a big differentiator when you’re looking for professional video for your online marketing!
This week I spent some time with my friend Scot Small from RevBuilders Marketing. Five minutes with Scot and you will be facing the brutal reality of your current marketing efforts! One key point he made this week at our B2B Networking group in Gainesville was the importance of a headline. One of his favorite quotes is from Jay Conrad Levinson- “…if you have 10 hours to spend on a marketing weapon, you should spend nine of them creating the headline.” For most of us, our logo and name are not going to be the draw to our ad. We need a great headline! I’m going to start applying this to all my marketing, including my lame tradeshow banner shown below. I should have headlined with “Higher Profits – Be Better at Business” and put my logo at the bottom. Let me know what you think!
Unless you have a race car - put your logo on the bottom!
Cold Calling? Do Your Homework
Great tip from Tim Beckner of Allstate in Network at Noon (Western Office of PWC-GM Chamber) last week. The topic was “Getting Past the Gatekeeper” and there were several great ideas. Tim recommended knowing enough to ask for your target confidently by their first name. I liked this one because it demonstrates the need to put some thought behind your calls. If you use the wrong name, title or phone number the gatekeeper will close the door quickly, and maybe they should.
Trouble Listening? Maybe it’s Your Hearing!
Great presentation by Dr. Diane Markva, Au.D. of Fauquier Hearing Services at the Piedmont Professionals on Wednesday morning. Did you know that you can get special purpose ear plugs that selectively filter certain noise, like gun shots, but allow other noise, like leaves rustling and talking. She also said there is a way to go online and set maximum volume levels on your kids iPod – now this I have gotta see! Beyond the great info about hearing, she very skillfully established her expertise and credibility and identified some key things that should trigger referrals. Now I know that almost anyone is a potential patient for her, not just people with bad hearing! This will probably show up as an example in my next “Elevator Pitch” class.
Great Tip to Measure Marketing
At the “Marketing on a Shoestring” seminar hosted by the Greater Warrenton Chamber of Commerce this week, Charla Malone of Salon Emage had a great tip for measuring marketing effectiveness. They keep a “hash mark sheet” and when someone makes a comment about seeing an ad or hearing from a friend, they put a hash mark in that category. Great “shoestring” idea – thanks Charla.
Are you overwhelmed with the sheer magnitude of applications, sites, techniques and resources claiming to grow your business online? Web site, blogging, social networking, email – just as it seems things are clearing up and I’m getting a handle on things, somebody asks “have you used _____?”
Online marketing is clearly beneficial in any business and even for many personal careers. As you review your online marketing strategy, we recommend that you start with evaluating where you are on the Online Marketing Spectrum.
The Online Marketing Spectrum
Online Presence
These businesses may have a couple pages up, but often have no web site. They are likely listed in a business directory or have an automatically generated site through an association or online directory. Their pages are not optimized and they are not proactively marketing.
Online Marketing
Most small businesses who have more than a presence fall into this category. These companies have mult-page web sites, usually professionally designed, that provide information about their products and company. There is a wide range of how effectively they are optimized and promoted. The focus of the site is communicating information to those who find the site. Along with many others, Bob Moe of Moe Technologies is in the “Marketing” category, and helps others become optimized in this category through SEO and SEM.
Online Support
Airlines are a great example of the online support category. These are companies that provide a product that is not delivered online, but use the online channel for much of their customer support – ticketing, technical support, etc… There is still a clear separation between online and offline. Shawn Sumrall at Badger-Sumrall CPAs recently added an online application for clients to securely manage tax documents online, moving the firm into the “Support” category.
Integrated Online Presence
Your company becomes integrated when you are seemlessly able to provide products and services online and offline. A brick and mortar retailer, where you can order online and pick it up in the store falls into this category. The difference in this stage is that as a consumer it is now my choice – shop online and wait for shipment, shop at the store and walk away with it, or shop online and then go in and walk away with my new product.
Centric Online Presence
The Centric companies manage their complete distribution channel online, but have a product that requires them to physically provide the service, manage inventory or ship the product. Amazon.com is an example of Centric Presence.
Exclusive Online Marketing Presence
These are the companies who operate soley online and provide no physical product or specific service, other than linking buyers and sellers together. Ebay or Orbitz provide good examples of an exclusive presence, because their entire busness model is online.
SO WHAT!
As you move up the spectrum, using online resources for more of your business, things become more efficient and new markets are opened. Sitting at the “Marketing” Position is a great start, but you need to be thinking of ways that you can move all or parts of your business to the “Support” and ”Integrated” areas of the spectrum. This is a great way to improve your overall online strategy.
August 23, 2010 | Posted by Jamie Gorman 
Categories: Business Networking, Business Topics, Marketing and Sales, Online Marketing, Social Media | 
Tags: advertise, education, facebook, gainesville, haymarket, learn, management, manassas, networking, online, seo, small, social, Social Media, VA, Virginia, warrenton, web | 
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