Paul Chaney - Internet Marketing Social Media Consulting

What Facebook Places (and Other Changes) Mean for Business

Lots of changes have been taking place on Facebook's Platform since the f8 developer conference, not the least of which was last week's rollout of Places, Facebook's version of location-based social network check-in services like Foursquare and Gowalla.

Over the past couple of days I have done a good deal of research in an effort to better understand these changes and their implications for business. In this post I report my findings.

Changes to Facebook Pages (fan pages)

Fan Pages are definitely feeling the heat from changes, two of which go into effect today:

• Page widths narrowing to 520 pixels
• Removal of Boxes, both the tab and boxes themselves

If you'd like to know more about these, read my post in The Social Retailer blog at Practical Ecommerce.

Other changes planned for rollout later this year include:

Cessation of new app development based on FBML (Facebook Markup Language, which is their form of HTML). That may mean little to you and me, but for 3rd-party application developers it's critical. And, since many of us use 3rd-party apps like those that come from Involver, Wildfire, FanAppz, NorthSocial and others, it affects us as well. Instead of FBML, app developers will be forced to start using iframe technology, which Pages don't currently support, but will.

Existing fan page apps such as staticFBML, which has been the backbone of custom fan page development, will continue to be supported, Facebook says. But, for how long. I wouldn't be surprised if FBML-based apps are squeezed out altogether over time.

Facebook Places and Pages

Another change is the introduction of Facebook Places, which, as previously noted, is Facebook's version of Foursquare. Huffington Post blogger David All describes Places succinctly:

"Places allows you to easily "check in" where you are and share the friends you're with in real time from your mobile device. After you check in, your update will appear on the Place's page, your friends' News Feed and also your Facebook wall. You'll also be able to see if any of your friends are at your current location, and you can browse the updates of your friends who are checked in at locations nearby."

My interest is the effect it has on business and its correlation with Facebook fan pages, which millions of businesses use. To address that issue, I turn to fan page app developer Involver, which has a blog post that explains things in great detail.

The post first addresses the reason for narrowing fan page widths to 520 pixels.

"Facebook will keep the left sidebar of a page visible no matter what tab on the Facebook Page is selected. This new, persistent space, will likely be the placement for many of Facebook’s new features launching in the next several months. The first feature to get placement in this sidebar is Facebook Places, if you decide to merge your Places Page and your Facebook Page."

It goes on to explain the signficance of Places for business and its correlation with the fan page.

• The check-in is sent to that user’s friends through the newsfeed, creating a powerful implicit recommendation for that place.
• That user is listed as having checked in on that Places Page in the left hand column of the page, creating valuable social proof for users who find your place on Facebook.

The post then explains how businesses can manage Places and Pages, the most significant piece of information being that business owners can merge their listing in Places with their page.

Rather than borrowing more of the post's content than Fair Use allows, let me encourage you to read it for yourself. It's the best explanation to date. Mashable also has a post on using Places for business.

What Does This All Mean, Really?

To quote a Facebook friend, it means that, conceptually speaking, Facebook controls both the "vertical and the horizontal." His quote is a testament to the growing ubiquity Facebook has in its quest to become the operating system of the social web.

Practically speaking, if you own a local business, you need to claim it. Facebook explains how to go about doing that here. (Even better, here's a post from Appbistro that walks you through the process...and another one, from InsideFacebook..)

Currently, you have to use Touch.Facebook.com or the Facebook iPhone app to do so, as the procedure has yet to be hard-wired into Facebook.com itself. Once you claim your listing, it will be available on the website, but the only way to find it is via search. Obviously, Facebook is going to have to make this feature more prominent.

When your business listing is claimed, it becomes a Page of its own, but not a fan page. Instead, it becomes a Community Page (which is a topic for another post). According to Involver's blog post mentioned above, you can merge it with your fan page.

Does This Lessen the Importance of Fan Pages?

AllFacebook.com is reporting that Places has slowed Page growth. However, I am prone to believe that using both in tandem provides a two-pronged approach for business development, especially given the fact that two can be merged.

Neither do I believe that it makes fan pages of lesser importance. It just means they share the limelight with Places. Ultimately, for a local small business, both are good things.

In fact, let's look at the Facebook business arsenal. You now have Pages, Places, Ads, and to a lesser extent, Events available to you. Not bad for a site that allegedly started out as a way for college nerds to meet women!

If you need help sorting this all out, contact me. It's what I do. And, I can assist you in building a comprehensive strategy for using social media to get more customers that incorporates the use of Facebook, Twitter, blogs and other social channels.

Social Commerce a Rising Tide

Here's my latest post at Practical Ecommerce...

The more time I spend looking under the hood of social media marketing as it relates to ecommerce, studying trends, seeing what's developing, the more I'm convinced that the term social media should be more aptly labeled social commerce. 

Social commerce is a subset of electronic commerce that involves using social media, online media that supports social interaction and user contributions, to assist in the online buying and selling of products and services. (wikipedia)

The term was introduced in 2005, but the concept has only gained popular standing in the past few months, thanks in part to sites like Social Commerce Today.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT PRACTICAL ECOMMERCE

Facebook 'Land' Pages, Not Fan Pages

More than 1.5 million businesses have a presence within Facebook, mostly through the use of Fan Pages. A recent SmartBrief on Social Media poll reported that over 73% of respondents had a fan page, and another 9% were considering it. 

The problem is that many, if not most businesses focus solely on the "conversation" side of the equation and don't realize there is also a "conversion" side as well -- conversions which can come in the form of sales leads, direct sales transactions, webinar registrations, email newsletter subscriptions and more. Oh, and let's not forget traffic to the company Website too. That certainly qualifies as a conversion. 

With that in mind, I want to introduce a new concept. Don't think of these as fan pages. Think of them as "land" pages instead (as in landing pages). 

The use of landing pages (or "squeeze pages" as some refer to them) are a long-standing staple in online marketing. It's commonplace to see them used in concert with Google Adwords, email marketing and online advertising. Nothing new about that. What is new is the use of them as part of a "conversation + conversion" methodology, in this case on Facebook. 

Here are a few stellar examples of fan pages that employ this landing page idea (click each image to see a larger version). 

In each case, there is a specific call to action associated with the page. 

Take Genetic Demin, for example. They are a luxury denim designer worn by celebrities like Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Halle Berry, Britney Spears and Kristen Stewart.

They offered a discount code for 20% off Genetic Jeans to fans and within 30 minutes of the page going live, there were 17 sales totaling $2150. Not too bad for a custom page that cost them $295 to develop. 

(Statistics courtesy of the page developer, Mary McKnight.)

FACEBOOK MARKETING

Having an attractive landing page with a compelling offer is one thing, but getting traffic to it is another. I can think of two primary ways that can happen within Facebook itself: word of mouth for existing fans and the use of Facebook advertising. 

Facebook Ads uses a bidding system similar to Google Adwords, just much simpler. You place bids based on either a CPM or CPC basis. Ad campaigns are easy to create and can be setup right from the fan page. You can create several campaigns and micro-target each of them to attract a particular audience. 

In fact, the best thing about the system is its targeting capabilities. You can select by geographic location, age, gender, education, keywords and more. 

The worst thing about Facebook Ads is that they are notorious for low click-thru rates. But, the cost is dirt cheap, so you can afford to purchase more. And, the better you target, the better your ads will convert. 

How do you know who to target? 

That's where Facebook Insights comes into play. It's the analytics engine that runs behind the fan page giving you data on fans, including age, gender and location. You can also see fan interactions such as comments, likes, etc. 

If fan pages become landing pages and advertising is used as a primary way to drive traffic, this sounds strangely unlike the way social media has traditionally operated and very much like how traditional online advertising is conducted. The past meets the future. It's called Social Commerce and it is what's on the horizon, especially where Facebook is concerned.

What of the fans? 

This is not to minimize the value of engaging with fans in a conversational fashion, though using this landing page/ads scenario, it would be easy to dismiss that aspect. However, to do so is to "cut off your nose in spite of your face." 

Your fans can be your biggest allies and the best salesforce you ever had in helping spread the message via word-of-mouth. If, as the in the case with Genetic Denim, you've got a good offer, the fans will indeed spread the word.

Ideally, the goal here is to pair a conversion mechanism together with the conversational aspect in a manner where one does not impinge upon the other, but compliments them. 

What types of conversions can be used? Several.

Direct sales - via the use of a shopping cart embedded in the fan page. A number of companies have developed Facebook-based shopping carts. 

Coupons - Genetic Demin offered a coupon code that could be used in the shopping cart. 

Email subscriptions - Practical Ecommerce has a newsletter signup form on its fan page. 

Lead generation - Why not have a special offer that requires the completion of a form, such as an ebook or whitepaper download or enrollment in a customer loyalty program. Once that data is captured, fans can be followed-up with via the use of email autoresponders such as AWeber or Infusionsoft. (The latter incorporates a CRM system within the marketing technology.) 

What we are experiencing is a seismic shift in thinking about the way social media works. I call it social media that sells. (Again, the term in common use is "social commerce.")

Certainly, we are seeing a morphing of the medium from conversational marketing and relationship building alone to one that clearly supports sales and marketing initiatives in a much more tangible, trackable manner. I think that's kind of a big deal and I'm anxious to see how this continues to develop over the next few months. 

What about you? Are you seeing this trend as well? If so, what do you think of it?