The reason this matters to small business owners, is that feelings are the key factor in whether someone buys from you or not.  We do business with people we feel good about and avoid people we have a bad feeling about.  We buy things that feel just right and avoid buying things that feel wrong.  In fact, it’s often said that the decision to buy a new house, the biggest single purchase most people will ever make, is based on the way they feel about the house in the first 60 seconds!

Online profiles and the feelings they create

In my experience, small business owners tend to have 1 of the following 2 broad approaches to what they share with the world on their blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin etc:

1. The first group writes in positive terms about their business and the marketplace.  Even if times are challenging for them, we wouldn’t know because they talk about what they want, rather than what they fear.  Of course, their enthusiasm builds confidence in them and their business, which creates a positive circle of events, as people are attracted to them – Giving them even more to be positive about.
2. The second group write in largely neutral terms about their business and the marketplace.  However, their lack of enthusiasm fails to inspire confidence in them or their business.  Some seem to confuse being confident, with being boastful.  Others fail to share their positive news, for fear that it may make people resent them for what they have achieved.

6 things to think about

I strongly believe you should be confident enough to get your stars out and show the world your brilliant self.  Here are 6 suggestions, to help your prospective clients get a glimpse of the REAL YOU and how amazing you truly are, when they check you out online.   Use your blog and social media accounts to:

1. Talk (and write) about what you want, not what you fear.  Prospective clients might not want to do business with someone, if they think that person may be about to go out of business, after reading how bad things are.
2. Share your successes.
3. Show your gratitude.  Be fast to thank.  Be first to thank.
4. Show your willingness to contribute.
5. Share your uniqueness.  It’s hard to get noticed unless you are willing to step out of the crowd.  Don’t be a human RT  / “like” machine for the gurus!
6. Showcase other great people.

Never confuse confidence with arrogance.  Have the confidence to share your successes, but also the humility to readily celebrate the beauty and uniqueness of others.

So, what would you add to that list?

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The process of optimization is somewhat simple, at least when compared with search engine optimization for websites. You will want to follow these basic steps:

1) Have a highly keyword-relevant page title.

2) Fill out the profile completely with keyword rich content, paying special attention to the “information” section.
3) Add media rich elements, including videos and images, preferably with tags or captions that are keyword relevant.
4) Be active on Facebook. Update your page status, create events for users, and otherwise remain present.
5) Get users to “like” you. The number one factor in deciding which page shows is the number of “likes” it has received, so this step is crucial. While viral marketing is often at the core of Facebook endeavors, the use of strategic advertisements can help the page get off to a racing start.

All of these elements factor into whether or not your site will appear as an autocomplete suggestion within Facebook’s search, or as a result for a fully completed search.

For those who are uncertain of the benefit of Facebook’s search alone, remember that all popular pages on Facebook come with a distinct URL that outside search engines rank by the standard algorithms. With so many inbound links from the “likers” of your page, optimization on Facebook can be a gateway to search engine ranking.

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Here’s a simple idea, which can help you quickly improve your marketing messages and your marketing results.  It’s all about becoming a collector and a student.

Marketing collection

Look through your inbox, RSS reader, mail etc, for any marketing material that inspired YOU to take the kind of action you want others to take, when they read YOUR marketing messages.  So, collect the; emails, blog posts, letters, advertisements and anything else that you read, which inspired you to take action.

Marketing study

Next, study each message and see what you can learn, from the way it was written and presented.  For example:

• What kind of headlines (sometimes called straplines) did they use?
• What kind of calls to action did they use?
• How long was the gap, between each of their marketing messages.  For example, did they email you once a week or three times a week?
• What kind of promises did they make?
• What kind of guarantees did they offer?
• How many words did they use?
• What kind of carrier did they use?  (In other words, what kind of envelope did the letter come in, what type of theme did the blog use, what style of template did the newsletter / email marketing use, etc.)
• What was it that they said, which caused you to believe you could trust them?  How did they win your confidence?

In short: Keep a copy of everything that has inspired you to take the kind of action, which you want others to take regarding your business.  Then, study what you have collected and look for the gold.  Apply what you have discovered into your own marketing and see if you can replicate the magic!

Surveying 1,550 U.S. respondents aged 15 and older from March 2009 to April 2010, the results found that a whopping 40% of consumers like a brand or company on Facebook to “receive discounts and promotions.” When it comes to getting freebies, 36% would like a brand who offered giveaways.

Add to that 30% of those surveyed would like a brand to get updates on upcoming sales, and it’s clear that having a Facebook page offers a great opportunity for businesses to build loyalty with a willing customer base.

So how can you use this information for your business’s Facebook page?

Coupons and Customer Coding

The obvious way to market would be through coupons of your own. If you have flyers or discount coupons for your brick-and-mortar retail store, you can easily transfer that to your Facebook page.

Grab the artwork from your existing flyer (or make one unique to Facebook) and then transfer that to a tab on your page’s navigation menu. Currently this is created using the FBML application (and some HTML coding), though soon you’ll have to change to iFrame.

Call your tab something simple like Coupons or Discounts to grab attention. Then, to encourage folks to Like your page, only make the coupon or discount available to people after they like you. If you’re unsure how to do this, my friend John Haydon has a great guide on using Facebook HTML as well as hiding offers until people click your Like button.

I used this method when I offered a free Facebook Marketing ebook exclusively to folks that liked my Facebook page, and as you can see by this overview on the metrics, exclusive content definitely works.

Of course, getting folks to like your brand through coupons and discounts is just part of the process – keeping them is a whole other story.

Loyalty, Lists and Like Highlights

So now you have a bunch of folks that have liked your Facebook page because of your discount coupons or freebie offer. But how do you stop them from un-liking as soon as they have the coupon?

Simple – you market. But not just any old marketing – now you use the strengths of the Facebook page platform and make it a no-brainer for folks that like you to continue to do so.

• Facebook Insights are available for admins of any Facebook page, and will give you information on demographics, content popularity, interaction on offers and other useful insights into how people are acting on your page. Use this to tailor audience offers and time-sensitive specials.
• Facebook Updates are the equivalent of email lists, and will send a targeted message to people that like your page. The great thing with updates is that you can completely tailor them so that instead of everyone receiving a message, only those in a certain city, country, age range, demographic, etc, will receive the message. Perfect for gender-specific offers, or cultural events, or national holidays – anything you like, really.

On top of these two options, rotate your coupon and offers, and make sure they’re only available to people that like your page. Don’t settle into a routine – have an offer one week, then change two weeks later, then 2 days, etc. Mix it up so people will always have to be connected to your page to know when a new coupon is available.

Highlight your most valuable users as well.

Folks that interact the most; or use their coupon the most; or share your offer the most – give them special discounts and rewards to say thank you. It shows you value them, and also offers incentives to your other “fans” to become more involved.

These are just some of the ways you can be the brand that customers won’t just like, but be loyal to instead of being a fairweather friend.

And at the end of the day, isn’t that what you’re in business for?

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Engagement is a pretty serious thing right?  Traditionally engagement has really been used in two very important historical contexts:

1. A promise to marry, and also the period of time between proposal and marriage – which may be lengthy or trivial. During this period, a couple is said to be affianced, betrothed, engaged to be married, or simply engaged.”
2. When Captain Jean Luc Picard from Star Trek was about to blast off into warp speed he would always say, “engage!”

So have we really gone from marriage proposals and intergalactic battles for world peace to now simply clicking a button?

I’m not saying there is a right or wrong way here to define engagement but I think that this all comes back to defining the objectives and success metrics for a brand/company looking to get involved in social anything.  It’s meaningless for a brand to say it wants to be more engaged unless it defines engagement and says, “we want more comments, links, conversations, or whatever.”  Personally, I always viewed true engagement as a type of collaborative relationship where a conversation or flow of information takes place between a customer and a brand/company – something that hopefully turns into a long term relationship.  This means that instead of “liking” a facebook fan page that I would have some sort of conversation or interaction with the brand on the page.  Otherwise what we are talking about is participation aren’t we?

It really doesn’t matter what I or anyone else says about engagement, what matters it that your organization defines engagement so that it knows what it is trying to do and how it is trying to do it.  It’s also important to keep in mind that various departments and employees at your organization are going to define and understand engagement differently.  Understand this form the very beginning.

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