Facebook is a Pub Crawl...*hic*!

Jonathan's book can be found on Amazon.com. It is a great read, with metaphors to match. The strategies presented within make a lot of sense from a marketing perspective. A definite recommended read!. To get the complete commentary, check out his work. The best part is the price: Free! Don't have a Kindle? No problem. Download their app on whatever device you use, create an account, and, as he states in the book, "Let's get it crackalacking."

Facebook marketing. It's an area where many shops struggle to be effective. Author Jonathan Greene likens it to a different social experience in his book "Facebook is a Pub Crawl: Simple Strategies for Social Media Excellence". This is the first of a series, shared with the author's permission, on social media marketing strategies.

Strategy #1: Stop Selling Immediately.
Facebook is not an avenue for conversion, and you'll always be frustrated if you define success by number of clickthroughs or conversion from Facebook to a landing page or product page, etc. Think of it as an avenue for lead nurturing instead, and you'll be well on your way to fixing your Social Media presence.

Strategy #2: Relax Your Expectations.
In order to have a virally explosive social media campaign, you really either need a lot of time or a lot of money. If you have lots of money you can pay for people to like your page and interact with your content. If not, give yourself a break and understand that it's going to take at least a year or two to grow a successful Facebook presence.

Strategy #3: More is not always better.
Stop measuring the success of your social campaign by how many "likes" [your] page has. Instead, look at how engaged your current audience is.

Strategy #4: Know that Facebook curates content.
The reason why you can have 1000 followers and your posts only reach 30 people has more to do with how engaging your content is than how many followers you have. Ironically, the best way to increase your follower count is also to be engaging.

Strategy #5: Post when people are available to read your content. That includes both evening and weekends. Use a post scheduling tool to make it happen rather than paying someone to come in to the office on weekends. No one time of day or week is best for every company, so test your post time to see what is most effective for you.

Strategy #6: Adopt a casual tone. People are on Facebook because they want to interact with other people, not some robotic corporate persona. Give them what they want.

Strategy #7: Serve people, not yourself. Nobody wants to thumb through post after post of product shots. Create something of value and give people a reason to keep coming back and chatting with your brand.

Strategy #8: Don't ignore your customers on Social Media. Whether or not they continue to do business with you, and even the likelihood of making a product recommendation to their friends, depends upon how well you serve their needs on social media.

Strategy #9: Understand that Social Media is not just marketing anymore. Whether you intended to open up a customer service help line of Facebook or not, that's exactly what you've done. Consumers, especially Generation Y, think you ought to answer their questions in a polite and friendly way.

Strategy #10: Stop Broadcasting. Instead, make sure you have a good mix of broadcasting and conversational posts. Use the Conversational Ratio* as a tool to track your progress.

*Conversation Ratio is described in Greene's book.

Strategy #11: Tell Stories. It's one of the most effective marketing techniques in the history of the world, and one of the oldest too. Social Media is no different. People love a good story.

Strategy #12: Resist the urge to pump your product. You don't need to talk about your product constantly for consumers to make the connection between the useful content you're providing and your brand, so give it a rest already.

Strategy #13: Visual content is a big deal. Use more videos and photos, and do less text posting. Make it a goal to attach an image to every single post if possible.

Strategy #14: Quality is king. High resolution photography taken by somebody who understands composition and art is superior to the alternative, and almost always outperforms it. Spend some money for awesome visuals if it's in the budget, but at least be selective of what you post.
If you have a good but not really GREAT photo and would like it cleaned up a bit, contact us. It's $25 per image, so while it may not be practical for all photos, for those you use often it can be a wise investment.

Strategy #15: Do everything in this book with a fruity drink in your hand. Facebook should be fun, not laborious. If you aren't enjoying what you're doing, chances are good that people on the receiving end of your efforts aren't enjoying it either. Take a chill pill. Nothing we're doing here is worth a stress-induced heart attack.

For more details on these and the other strategies in this series, Greene's book is available in the Amazon Kindle Store. It's an excellent read with some great advice on making the most of Facebook.