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January 1, 2011 at 8:47 am #971323Up::0
I am a self confessed doubter of Facebook…so…..
I would like to read about people’s business/marketing success with facebook.
I DON”T want to hear the guff about how good it is blah blah, but actual verifiable first hand experiences of
1. Sales directly attributable to Facebook. This needs to be attributable via sales of deals only promoted on FB or by customers checking a box in the checkout telling you where they were directed from.
2. Actual confirmed market reach (interested to hear how you know they are your target market, not just casual browsers liking your page etc)
Yeah, I’m cynical, so convert me with solid evidence.
Ta
January 1, 2011 at 10:26 am #1049105Up::0Hi King,
I’d be interested in the responses too.
Social media isn’t a sales channel, so expecting it to be one is the wrong approach. It’s largely retention focused.
‘What’s the ROI?’ The best answer is ‘What’s the Return on Ignoring?’
Sure, some businesses are more suited to facebook than others (say a football club or bar promoting an event vs Insurance Salesman) but there are ways to make it ‘work’ for all businesses.
A successful social media presence builds your brand and your reputation. Piece by piece.
—end guff
January 1, 2011 at 10:38 am #1049106Up::0At the moment my view (despite having a FB page) is ROI is Risk of Ignoring =0
Be interesting to separate the hype from the evidence-backed results.
January 2, 2011 at 2:03 am #1049107Up::0Heres some analytics data for a commercial site advertising on Google, Yahoo Search Marketing and Facebook over a period:
The period or the total revenues (substantial) are not the point here, its the traffic and revenue ratios.
I can’t reveal any more about the data source except to make the following points:
– Facebook advertising is not suited to all products
– Facebook advertising is probably more expensive than pay-per-click but more targeted than other forms of banner advertising.
– Facebook traffic including ads overall contributed 11% of the (substantial) revenue, was profitable and converted well.The other tangible aspect of Facebook is its SEO value. Facebook has a high rank/quality factor with search engines and a link back to your site from a Facebook business page has value.
Finally, I think that many of us have been sceptical about committing significant time to social networking. This is understandable, but we need to experiment and learn.
If someone says to me “what about this – will this work?”. 9 times out of 10 the answer is -“Test it”. Google analytics is free.
Regards
Tony
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http://www.youronlinebusiness.com.auJanuary 2, 2011 at 2:12 am #1049108Up::0Well we need to now what sort of business, is is micro (given this forum is all about micro business) and in what industry.
Given the stats, FB ads = fail if I was paying for less than 2% more than organic results).
These are ad stats , what about quantifiable benefits of a business page?January 2, 2011 at 3:35 am #1049109Up::0King, post: 60377 wrote:Well we need to now what sort of business, is is micro (given this forum is all about micro business) and in what industry.
Given the stats, FB ads = fail if I was paying for less than 2% more than organic results).
These are ad stats , what about quantifiable benefits of a business page?
It is a micro business – i.e. less than about 4 employees. When I used the word ‘commercial’ I should have used the word ‘ecommerce’. It’s just a small business with a market in everyday physical product, but doing well through hard work, good service and effective use of marketing tools.Regarding “fail if I was paying for less than 2% more than organic results”.
Why? Depends on how much organic traffic you get. Even with high rankings, there is only so much traffic you can get from organic results. It is limited by the number of searches. The logical determinant of the value of any paid traffic source is whether it is profitable. (Costs to include not just the advertising but the management of the ads.) In the above case the Facebook ads added 11% or more to revenue and about 5% to overall profitability.
Also what happens if Google changes its algorithm and you drop off the organic search listings? Do you let your business die? That’s why you need varied sources of traffic.
Question about the business page versus ads is relevant, I should put some additional tracking on that. At a minimum – the value of backlinks is acknowledged – Facebook has a high Pagerank.
Regards
Tony
http://www.youronlinebusiness.com.auJanuary 2, 2011 at 9:12 am #1049110Up::0My experience is interesting and not backed by google analytics.
My business is just me and my other two personalities: i.e. me, myself and I.
I run Twitter and a Facebook page, a website and an eBay store. I have Twitter linked to my personal Facebook page (which is used for business as I dislike Facebook) and also LinkedIn so that every original message or every retweet goes through to both avenues. Every so often I will put some books up on Twitter with the comment to the effect of ‘get them before they go the op shop’ and roughly 50% of the time they’ve sold. One of those sales was to a friend who saw it on Facebook and the other times they sold on Twitter. I know this as that’s where the person contacted me.
January 2, 2011 at 1:02 pm #1049111January 3, 2011 at 8:50 am #1049112Up::0I’m not sure what you mean by ‘usage’. I tend to use social media to connect with people rather than trying to sell to them. It means that those people who do buy from me tend to really like me and will promote me when they can. It does mean that occasionally I need to be more aggressive in telling people what I do.
January 3, 2011 at 10:55 am #1049113Up::0I meant in terms of using Facebook as a dedicated tool to make sales. That is what this thread is about, not incidental sales to friends.
January 3, 2011 at 8:42 pm #1049115Up::0King, I think the question you are asking is too simple because the subject is very broad. There are many ways of using Facebook, and it is shifting ground. At the moment I’m happy to have a Facebook account and get a few referrals from it. It’s working for me better than my flyingsolo referrals, at the moment, but I’m working on that. I’ve put a ‘Like’ button on some of my web pages. I have a fan page for my eCommerce offering. I’ve tried Facebook advertising, and I may try it again. Facebook is a broad product but I think it is primarily social networking and currently I have no plans for a storefront there.
Although, on the subject of storefronts Payvement seem to be on a real winner and I’m watching them very closely. They have an interesting shopping cart integration feature using Facebook logon to existing sites.
January 3, 2011 at 8:56 pm #1049116Up::0I approach Facebook Twitter, forums etc as electronic word of mouth. For me it is not a solid measurable sales channel. It is more like me talking to someone I meet at the chamber of commerce or at a friends BBQ. I just share and my network builds and work comes out of this network.
I have met professionals within my industry on Twitter that has led to work directly. They needed something done that they saw I could do and sent me the work. This has now happened 3 times with the same person on twitter. But I think facebok is more friends and family orientated. Twitter is broader and easier to meet new people or people in your industry.
Yesterday Facebook received 500mill in additional funding. It is currently valued at 50bill. This valuation is on page views and advertising potential. But there is also the “what could it become” potential.
Group buying websites seem to be a big thing lately. Another potential Internet service for your business. Again this model capitalizes on word of mouth.
January 3, 2011 at 11:49 pm #1049117Up::0I too take the approach of “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”, which is where I see the value of social media – including FB.
Do I think it’s likely that some random stranger will happen on my page and ask for a quote? Probably not.
Do I think it’s likely that someone who is a fan may recommend my services to someone they might know, resulting in a sale? The chances are much higher.
Again, it’s the “word of mouth” aspect, combined with smart marketing techniques, which I believe make it worthwhile. And given I’m in the process of following through on a FB ad for a reasonable sized transaction, I have to credit the effectiveness of at least one persons well-targeted ad.
It’s still very early days for me, so I’m still in the process of building my profile, but I definitely think FB and other forms of social media have merit.
January 4, 2011 at 1:16 am #1049118Up::0WWDesign, post: 60457 wrote:I approach Facebook Twitter, forums etc as electronic word of mouth. For me it is not a solid measurable sales channel. It is more like me talking to someone I meet at the chamber of commerce or at a friends BBQ. I just share and my network builds and work comes out of this network.Exactly.
It is about building your network.
Apart from this Facebook ads are a tangible, measurable, use of Facebook. A Facebook business page is easy to set up, is relatively low maintenance in its basic form, and provides a high quality backlink to your main website.
The orginal premise of this thread – i.e. ‘Prove to me that Facebook works’ – is a bit like ‘Prove to me that networking works’.
Tony
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http://www.youronlinebusiness.com.auJanuary 4, 2011 at 1:49 am #1049119 -
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