Promoting Business With Facebook

[somarco]

Seems to be a polarizing topic with some saying it is a great resource for promoting business while others say it is a waste of time.

Just noticed that FB is a PR10 and Alexa rank of 2.

With that kind of juice there must be someway to capitalize.

 

[2112Greg]

Re: Facebook

I agree, and I've been taken to task (somewhat) here for promoting the concept in a general sense. It's not yet turned into a profit center for most business, but that by no means that it's not going to be. And that's why all I'm suggesting is to keep your eyes open and try things, because no one knows how it will shake out. Perhaps it will end up being nothing. I doubt that, but if it doesn't turn out to be something then it will be something.

I found this outfit at Sales 2.0: Best Sales Training & Sales Articles that seems to have some good ideas. I'm looking more into that and what they offer...

 

[TheInsuranceChic]

Re: Facebook

The only business I have come across that is effectively promoting their business is a mom & pop coffee shop/cafe in town that I meet clients frequently. I told them, you have something here, put your homemade soup of the day or flavored coffee & lunch special on here every day not once a week! That was before Christmas & now he has a regular stream of customers coming for soup & sandwich. I wrote him the other day & said Subway sells breakfast sandwiches now down the street what you have needs promoted, etc...
Seriously... It is working beautiful FOR FREE!!
He wants to help me now for helping him & I said I would love that but I can't see anyone ("friends") wanting to be SOLD insurance on FB --a nice bowl of soup ---sure ---- insurance not so much! LOL ya know what I mean.

 

[STIBROKER]

sorta like asking how many clients do you get for posting on ezine or go articles.....

Just noticed that FB is a PR10 and Alexa rank of 2.

With that kind of juice there must be someway to capitalize.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Someone's going to figure out where or not FB makes anyone money (Unless you're gonna create Farmville)....including FB. Obviously they're private so there are no financials. Worse than that, they refuse to go public because they'd have to release financials. IMHO - there are no financials because they're likely a few billion in debt. How many FB ads have you clicked on? Exactly.

Youtube's been running a loss and has yet to make money. Some experts claim it'll never made money.

For business pages - it seems to be dead. One of my favorite beers is Flying Dog. Here's their FB page:

Welcome to Facebook - 18,000 followers. Wow. Yeah, there's people posting, but around 3 to 4 comments when Flying Dog posts something.

Now let's turn to the insurance industry. Anyone get ASJ? I do. They claim a distribution of over 500,000 agents. Not bad.

Agent's Sales Journal | Facebook - 170 followers. Comments with ASJ posts? Zero.

Producers Web just changed their entire format to be more social: ProducersWeb - Welcome to ProducersWEB so let's see how that's working out over there.

Ironically the featured article today is: ProducersWeb - To tweet or not to tweet: Can social media help in the senior market? To Tweet or Not to Tweet. And people following that author? 2

Case closed on social media and the insurance field.

 

[Brantley]

I think that promoting your business with facebook in the traditional sense will result in nothing but disappointment. However, if you are willing to tilt your view just a bit, it can be powerful for building your business.

As an example, my wife uses facebook very effectively to grow her business but she does it by building community. She works at it for hours everyday, much the same as I spend hours a day on the phone with prospects. With facebook, it's all about engaging people in the middle of a conversation they are already having...I know that's clear as mud right?

What I mean is that you have to engage them as someone who actually cares first, not as a marketer looking for your next sale.

In some ways, it actually reminds of the way people did business in the small town where I grew up. They involved themselves in the community, actually gave a crap about the people they knew and looked for ways to help their friends.

Using facebook is certainly not an immediate "money getting" strategy. People don't connect with other people on facebook because they're looking to buy something. The old rules of making friends still apply to facebook, it's just that the your community has the potential to be much larger.

The reason most large companies have failed in using social media and in particular facebook, is that they are approaching it as they would any other medium for advertising. If they really want to be successful, they'll hire someone like my wife who is an excellent conversationalist, genuinely cares about people and enjoys engaging people with a conversation in progress.

I'm sure we've all heard this before, but that's probably because it's true:

"People don't care how much you know, til' they know how much you care"

Hope all that makes sense? just my two cents.

 

[Justin Bilyj]

I see four ways to do it on FB.
1. Like John said, hold convos on articles and tweets; very ineffective, unless theres a participation award.
2. PPC ads; ineffective, like mining for pixie farts in a cotton candy factory (you get the idea).
3. Go to the video games and get listed under affiliate deals, where people agree to have a quote done for more coins, cows, resources etc.; well we know how affiliate ads worked out for insurance internet leads...
4. The most effective is by building credibility with interesting posts to articles that have a "5 bullet points", "how to". Build credibility and then invite them all to an event, "shop your home insurance day". Blast that out there a call to action with some interest garnishing words (humor helps), few might show up, but make it a scheduled event process. Make events one week away.

Thats the only way...short of holding a lottery type giveaway online, number of tickets is per line of insurance able to be quoted for a particular person.

 

[STIBROKER]

Every insurance one that pops up....usually about 30 to 50 times.......

How many FB ads have you clicked on? Exactly.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Man....you're bad!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Advertising on the net and actually making money is a bit like buying the American Idol CD that teaches you how to sing so you can get rich with a recording career.

Can you make a lot of money singing? Yes. The odds?

 

[STIBROKER]

Man....you're bad!

some are just funny...
Antoine Dodson Insurance
lopeztonight.com

Antoine and Epic Fail Mutual - protecting people who make asses of themselves on the internet. Lopez Tonight Weeknights 12am/11c on TBS