Bits and bobs about Facebook

I’m thinking about Facebook. I like Facebook. You might have found us through Facebook and I might have found your through Facebook. I love that. It’s a very fabulous way to find new stuff.

Facebook has been super useful to me in LOTS of ways. Lots of ways other than finding customers. True!

Here are some ways that I use Facebook and our Facebook page:

1. To keep in touch with pages/business I REALLY want to hear from. I’ve never quite mastered Blog Feeds (like Bloglovin) so I use Facebook instead. Of course with the way Facebook works I wouldn’t see many of those feeds so I tick ‘get notifications’ and then they pop up into my, er, notifications and I can then look at them when I have time. I do this for LOTS of pages and I find it super-helpful.

2. To share things that I like and hope you’ll like. I just find it fun sharing interesting stuff (like this) and thinking stuff ( (like this) and stuff that just makes me giggle. I collect heaps of this stuff and it’s more fun to share it than hoard it!

3. To share my blog posts. Most people get my blog posts in their weekly Snacks (and you can too if you don’t already by signing up here!) but I pop them on the Facebook page too in case you don’t get the Snacks.

4. To chat with you. I’ve made lots of friends via my Facebook page and I just love that! It’s very fun getting to know you. I’ve learned heaps. And I’m never lonely!

5. Running our secret Kitchen Facebook group. Secret groups (where no-one can see what you’re writing except for people inside the group) are very fabulous. You can ask questions and get to know people without worrying how it’ll look in your newsfeed!

6. Finding stuff. I’m a very merry page liker! I love to find out about stuff. I go down MANY rabbit warrens sparked by something in my news feed. I think this is GOOD!

But what about finding customers? Has it been useful for that?

In the heady first days of Facebook business pages (I wasn’t there!) everything you posted appeared in your Fans’ Newsfeed. Imagine! It was super easy to get new fans and once you had them you could show them your stuff. Cool!

Now though, because of necessary changes (Yes! Necessary! Otherwise our Newsfeeds would be as cluttered as Twitter. Eek!) lots of our fans don’t see our posts. So is Facebook still useful for marketing?

Well I think so. YES! Because:

1. Lots of people, like me, find out about stuff on Facebook! Sometimes we find out about YOU, skip the whole “Like” page stuff and head straight to the website. Good YES?!

2. A Facebook page makes a business feel a bit more human. And that makes me trust you more. If you post regularly and have a bit of interaction with your followers it makes the thought of buying from you a little less scary. Yes scary!I know you’re nice and trustworthy but some small businesses aren’t. Ugh.

3. A Facebook page with a plenty of fans looks popular and that does help customers buy. It’s a thing called Social Proof: if everyone else likes it it must be good! And it helps with trust (see above) too.

3. Advertising! Facebook advertising is very clever and if you do your targeting right it works. YES! It is a good way to find some new customers quite cheaply! The mechanics of Facebook advertising are easy but there IS quite a lot of THINKING to get it right.( I might do another post on that!)

4. You can work your Facebook page to get new customers. But, let’s clean up a little myth here. It ain’t free! You have to work that page. Three businesses that I think do Facebook super-well are Betsy Boo Creations, Just For Tiny People, and Paper Panda: but look at how much work they put into it!

But beware!

I think Facebook is useful for marketing (it’s just that Facebook is not the ONLY marketing we should be doing) and I think Facebook is fabulous for non-marketing stuff. But, but, but. It can all be a massive time eater-upper! So I use an app called Rescue Time on my computer to tell me how much time I spend on Facebook!  If you’re inclined to spend too long on Facebook too you might like to get it!

D’you like Facebook? Does it help your business? 

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