The Dangers of Marketing Your Business on Social Media

[Bryce W]

In a past podcast I pointed out why you should be collecting client email addresses. The podcast basically said that there are a lot of computer technicians building up their social followings - Facebook page likes, Twitter followers etc..
The problem with this is you are building up an asset on "someone else's land". As soon as they change the rules you can have it all taken away from you.

Before 2014, every follower of your page saw whatever content you put out. Then Facebook changed the rules so that only 10% of your followers see your page updates. If you have 2700-ish likes like the Technibble page has, only 270 people will actually see it. They changed the rules on you.

Facebook just announced they are introducing a new rule where they will delete stealth "branded content" in your feed.

Facebook says:

“Just like all content on Facebook, branded content will go through a review process,” the company said in a statement. “We will begin ramping up enforcement over the next few weeks to remove non-compliant branded content or disapprove ads for lack of compliance.”

This Huffington Post article explains it well. They say

Theoretically, that means if a company like Hershey paid a pop star to post a video of them frolicking in a field full of chocolate bars, that celebrity would have to tag the company in the placement.

In addition to flagging the content to readers as an ad paid for by a sponsor, marketers will now have access to metrics indicating how well pieces of branded content perform. Marketers will have the option of sharing the post on their own page pay Facebook to “boost” their reach.

Its not 100% clear yet, but it looks similar to what happened with page reach. Again, I have 2700ish followers on the TN Facebook page and I can only access 10% of them unless I pay to "boost" the reach. I have to pay to access my own audience who WANT to hear from me which is why they started following the page in the first place.

Do not make your business your social media page. They do have their place when you use them to PULL PEOPLE INTO an asset you own like a mailing list. Just dont make the social media page your only way to contact your prospects. Its just too dangerous as they can change the rules on you at any time (and they just did).

 

[buzzcut]

This explains why sometimes my personal FB account does not see my company FB post.
I posted 4 times this week and only saw 1 post.

 

[Calx]

This is very timely. I have a client who runs a hairdresser and is trying to increase her marketing with out paying. It looks like she is going to have to boost a few posts to get the word out. Thanks Bryce.

 

[calldrdave]

I have to pay to access my own audience who WANT to hear from me which is why they started following the page in the first place.

That's the key. They aren't your audience They are Facebook's audience! I think of it like a casino. The house always wins. You're gambling and you can try to play the system a bit.

Just dont make the social media page your only way to contact your prospects

I completely agree. I think social media has a strong and important place in marketing your business. I don't believe in one marketing method being exclusive. You need to diversify and try lots of different thing. I remember when having a yellow pages ad was key--and I know some businesses that only advertise in the yellow pages.

 

[seedubya]

You're 100% correct in everything you say Bryce. Build your list and keep them fed with good quality content.

There is another take on this, however - Facebook provide the platform on which one CAN build an audience. If you are operating a business for profit why should FB or any other social media platform allow you to advertise free of charge? Why would one even expect that?

Imagine you own a café. Lots of people come in every day to drink coffee and chat. One guy comes in, has a coffee and hands out fliers to everyone in the café AND then comes back next week to do the same thing. On the third recurrence you're going hold on a minute now.... this is MY café. I'm happy for you to hand out your fliers BUT I want to be paid something for that.

Nothing wrong there.

 

[Toshia]

Definitely agree. Do any of you use Mail chimp, or do you just send from Marktr from Repair Shopr?

 

[Toshia]

May I also suggest a digital footprint doesn't hurt. But give more than you take, set up a sheduled post that goes to Linked IN, Twitter, Facebook and others. Like HootSuite or Edgar ($49 a month) Maybe 3 of them 14 can be reminding them to backup their website, pictures, customers data, schoolwork, you get my drift. We have seen success in Memes. Pictures engage more. So maybe 10% see it, but another 10% see other posts. I think that the more engagement you have it also increases the posts that are seen. Comics are good, but more content and advice, and tips on Social Media than just buy this bc well you need it. Gary Vanyerchuck calls it Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. Make sense?

 

[cypress]

Definitely agree. Do any of you use Mail chimp, or do you just send from Marktr from Repair Shopr?

I use Mailchimp integration in Repairshopr. So whenever I add a new client with their details the e-mail automatically gets added to my list in Mailchimp. When it's time to send another newsletter I don't have to worry about adding it manually anymore.

 

[Mike McCall]

I'm not big enough to afford the integrations, but I do use MailChimp to send out a monthly newsletter.

 

[sapphirescales]

Social media just sucks. The only way to easily and reliably get traffic from it is to purchase advertising through their network. Worse than that though is the low quality garbage traffic that you get from social media. You end up paying almost as much as clicks for Adwords because you can't target your audience based on what THEY are searching for and your CPC goes through the roof because of your super low CTR.

We still use social media, but it provides the lowest ROI by FAR. I'd say we probably break even or maybe just a little bit more. Social media clients also tend to be more of a pain in the butt. They're usually of lower intelligence than our other customers and want everything for nothing. Most of the customers I end up firing found me on a social media website.

 

[fencepost]

Before 2014, every follower of your page saw whatever content you put out. Then Facebook changed the rules so that only 10% of your followers see your page updates. If you have 2700-ish likes like the Technibble page has, only 270 people will actually see it. They changed the rules on you.

This doesn't just apply to business - my wife was pretty disturbed that only a couple of people sent condolences after she announced her father's passing, until I pointed out that most of the people she's connected to probably didn't see the post in their feed due to how Facebook handles all that now.

 

[callthatgirl]

Look at Linkedin and what a junkyard that turned into. Now people are posting crap that should be on Facebook and it lost it's value in 2013. I gave up a long time ago using it as one of my main marketing tools. You can only trust what you own...as Bryce said, emails! I have a list list and get a good open rate on my newsletters.

 

[acscva]

I use Mailchimp integration in Repairshopr. So whenever I add a new client with their details the e-mail automatically gets added to my list in Mailchimp. When it's time to send another newsletter I don't have to worry about adding it manually anymore.

Does it record under their account history in RepairShopr when you do a mailchimp mailing? Or is it just copying their name/email address over to mailchimp?

 

[cypress]

Does it record under their account history in RepairShopr when you do a mailchimp mailing? Or is it just copying their name/email address over to mailchimp?

Basically it is just copying and pasting their name and e-mail address to Mailchimp using the API integration from Mailchimp into Repairshopr.

 

[Keith Herstek]

I was wondering why the reach on my FB post dropped so dramatically! Marketing shouldn't be this hard for small business.