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Social Media for Small Business: Part 2 - Facebook

Facebook is a big deal but you probably already know that. To put it into context, there are around two billion people on the internet today, 850 million of them are on Facebook. The only other site that can boast more unique users is Google. So if used correctly Facebook can be a great way of reaching a new or existing customer base. There are whole host of things you can do with Facebook Pages but we will keep it simple.

There are three main parts we are going to cover in this section; Pages, Posting and Sharing but first you need to work out what you want to get from Facebook and then set yourself some goals. Work out how often you want to post. The aim is not to post all the time but infact try to make your posts relevant and interesting enough that people comment, share and like them.

Pages

What is a page? Well Facebook themselves probably describe it best. Here is their explanation of a Page:

Pages are for organizations, businesses, celebrities, and bands to broadcast great information in an official, public manner to people who choose to connect with them. Similar to profiles (timelines), Pages can be enhanced with applications that help the entity communicate and engage with their audiences, and capture new audiences virally through friend recommendations, News Feed stories, Facebook events, and beyond.

You also need to work out if a Facebook page is right for your business. If you are targeting Joe public then a Facebook page is perfect but if you want to get the attention of other businesses then it might not be worth the effort you put in. Ultimately you need to make this decision as you know your customer best.

A page is easy to set up if you already have a personal account (when logged in, scroll down to the bottom of any page and click 'Create a Page') on Facebook or if you don't have or want an account, then you can simply click the 'Create a Page for a celebrity, band or business' Link on the Facebook homepage. It will ask you a few simple questions about you or your business to get you started. Once you have set up your page you need to upload an image to represent you. This can be a logo, a picture of you or a picture of what you do. You will know what best represents what you are trying to achieve.

The benefit of using a service like Facebook is that you do not have to be a designer, developer or super-genius to use and update your page. It is as simple as updating your personal Facebook profile. Before writing your first post make sure you are happy with all the information you have put in about your business and it is correct. The more info you can include the better you page will look. If you have any photos that represent your business, create an album and put associated images in it (e.g. Photos from an Event should be together in an Album)

Gaining followers is not going to start overnight so the best way to start off your readership is to tell the people you already know. Talk about it on your own Facebook profile. Identify the friends and contacts that you already have who are either in the industry or may benefit from the information that you are posting and tell them directly about it (Either on Facebook, by e-mail or face-to-face). Link to your page from your website, your e-mail marketing campaigns and add a link onto the bottom of your company e-mails. Use whatever tools you have at your disposal to spread the word.

Posting

On your Page you can post Updates, Photos, Links, Videos and Polls. If you know how to use the personal side of Facebook then you will be right at home with this. When posting you need to think about what you are writing and how often you write it. Who is your target audience? Questions and polls often work well to get people interacting. Nobody likes business talk all of the time so try to keep it fun from time to time. You will know your audience and know how much or how little fun you can have with your posts. Try to post often but don't bombard people with posts, the last thing you want people to do is stop liking your page because you fill their Facebook News Feed with posts all of the time.

It will take time to build up a following so don't be disheartened if you haven't got a lot of 'Likes' straight away. Keep plugging away and they will build up as long as you keep up the quality of your posts and keep spreading the word that you are on Facebook. Remember to tell your new contacts about your page and maybe think about putting details of your page on business cards, promotional materials, E-Mails and make sure it is well integrated on your website.

Sharing

Having a Page isn't the only way to benefit from Facebook. Make sure you have a 'Like' button on every page of your website. This way when someone visits your site they can share it with all their friends simply by 'liking' it. This type of exposure will cost you nothing but is priceless as a recommendation from a friend is always more powerful than one from a stranger.

Also share content from your site or blog on your Facebook page by posting a link. It's as easy as copy, paste, click. The more you can share to keep people coming back to your page the better. Found a video on YouTube that your followers might like, post it on your page.

Sharing can go both ways. Services such as our Easy Sign-Up Forms can be implemented on your Facebook page to gather e-mail addresses/subscribers for your e-mail marketing campaigns.

If you are still unsure if Facebook it right for your business then please call us for advice.

Look out for Part 3 - Twitter - Coming Soon

Part 1 - Introduction to Social Media

It would seem that the world and his wife is always tweeting, liking, poking and living their life in cyberspace. But what does that mean to you? Can you use these modern mediums to reach new customers and expand your digital presence? The answer is probably yes. The difficulty lies with which one of the ever growing list of social media sites do you use, how are you going to manage them and how are you going to get the best from it. This is the first post in a short series that will help you to better understand the basics of social media.

Firstly, what is social media? It is a relatively new concept that has been in the public consciousness for less than a decade. In simple terms, it is content generated by the user that they wish to share with other users. Some formats have come and gone and some are better known than others. We will focus on the two biggest players in social media, Facebook and Twitter.

It doesn't matter if you are a huge multi-national company or Mrs Miggins trying to publicise her award winning local pies, used correctly social media can help you. You can use it to communicate with your existing customer base, to target new customers or both. Let's say you want to get feedback on a new service, advertise a new course or promote your latest promotion, there are ways to get this across to your customers without having to spend a penny.

When someone follows your updates then they will see what you have posted whilst they browse their particular social preference. Once they are a 'follower' then your updates will be viewed on a site that they actively return to or a mobile app they use on a regular basis. This means you can get your message across simply and easily whilst people go about their daily digital lives.

You can also use social media to share your website or blog. When integrated into your site, visitors can share content, posts and other parts of your website with all of their friends or followers. The potential is endless. Let's say John visits your site and shares it on Facebook. John has 250 friends who could potentially see what he's shared. John's friend Jim really likes the post about your site so he shares it too, but Jim has 400 friends and two of them share it to their friends. Already you've potentially reached over a thousand people and the chain goes on and on.

What do I post? You may ask. Success may not come from how many people you have following you but from what and how you communicate with them. Your friends and family may like to know that you had sausages for dinner but try to think about what your audience will want to read. Try sparking up a conversation. Mrs Miggins could post something like, 'What's your favourite pie filling?' and her followers will post comments, reply, retweet etc depending on where it was posted.

Over the next two posts we will help you to understand how to get the best from Facebook and Twitter. Don't know what a hashtag is? Or not sure what happens when someone likes a post? We'll break it down so you can easily get started.

Look out for Part 2 - Facebook. Coming soon.

All our customers who have used our Website Design services recieve free 'Just Call Us' support on everything from Social Media to E-Mail Marketing

Norfolk based APR Telecoms chose Norwich web design agency 101 to develop a website that showcased the services they have to offer and allowed them to manage their own web pages and content.

APR are a well respected local firm with an excellent reputation and serve a number of organisations across the region. They provide a wide range of telephone systems and help companies to reduce their call costs without sacrificing quality.

"We chose 101 to develop our new website as we were impressed with the service they were offering. They produced design concepts for us to choose from and came up with innovative ways to help us meet our objectives. We also use their email marketing system Smart Messenger to distribute our monthly e-newsletter, not only does our email look good but we get a full report which enables us to see how well the campaign has performed. The advice and support we receive from 101 is again not disappointing, be it support or advice for updating content, social media, getting listed in the search engines or email marketing we just call and they help us." 
David Farrell, Marketing Manager, APR Telecoms

The Role
The Sales Manager will be responsible for procuring leads and converting these into sales. Reporting directly to the Sales Director. This is a strategic role focused on developing the company's performance working via overall monthly and annual targets.

Personal attributes

• Strong motivational skills
• Energetic, enthusiastic and ambitious
• Positive and optimistic
• Commercially astute
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• A confident strategic thinker with conviction and tenacity
• Hands-on and proactive - able to "work things out"
• Entrepreneurial spirit and a desire to work as part of a dynamic team
• An eye for possibilities that will drive the business forward
• Able to work under pressure
• Hard working and dedicated
• Trustworthy
• Good written and verbal communication skills

Functional Responsibilities

• Consistently meet sales targets
• Generate leads
• Visit clients on site across the UK
• Maintain excellent levels of client satisfaction

Strategic Responsibilities

• Improve the profitability of the business and deliver year on year growth
• Work with the Sales Director to assess and implement sales processes to support and grow the business
• Set strategic targets for the development of the company
• Work to develop the overall performance and professionalism of the team
• Effective strategy and management of customer projects at every stage
• Ensure customer service levels are maintained and improved

If this is you and you would like to apply please email your CV to holly@101ltd.com

101 - Norwich website design agency

Find out what is happening on your website right now.

If you are an active tweeter or if you regularly create blog posts, it may interest you to find out the immediate impact these communications have on your website.

Google have recently launched 'Real-Time'. It allows you to see the traffic on your website in real time.

All 101 clients using Google Analytics have been upgraded so they may use this service within their current set up.

To access Real-Time: log in to Google Analytics and you will find the Real-Time reports in the new version of Google Analytics. If you're not already using the new version, you can start by clicking the "New Version" link in the top right of Google Analytics.

Real-Time reports are on the Home tab (in the orange bar at the top). You will have access to Real-Time reports if you are an Administrator on your Analytics account, or if you have access to a profile without profile filters. Real-Time does not support profile filters.

If you would like any advice about using Google Analytics or Real-Time please 'Just Call Us'

The International Doctors for Healthy Drugs Policies (IDHDP) network is for medical doctors to share expertise and good practice in reducing the health social and economic harms of people who use drugs and, with them at the center, create dialogue and influence practice and drug policy.

As members are based in various countries around the world a website is an extremely important communication channel for IDHDP. It was essential that the website was easy to manage and update with important information and that a forum was available for the members to discuss hot topics and issues.

"We are very pleased with our new website, it is really easy to update and maintain and will be an excellent tool for communicating with our members. We are also using 101's email marketing system Smart Messenger to send updates to our members and other interested parties, the ability to target certain groups makes it easy for us to send personalised emails to the relevant groups in just a few moments."

Rebecca Murchie, IDHDP

First registered in 1945, Solufeed was the brand name of a single ICI fertilizer for the then infant hydroponics industry. The Solufeed brand now embraces hundreds of products sold in over 40 countries. Products with an established reputation for quality, reliability and value for money; the choice for today's discerning Grower.  Success in export markets has lead to a Queens Award for Enterprise in 2011.

Independent and British, the company is focused on speciality fertilizers for the, horticulture, agriculture and amenity sectors. These include water soluble fertilizers, foliar fertilizers, organic fertilizers and chelated micronutrients.  All backed by enviable commercial, logistical and technical support services.

Solufeed products, both liquid and powder, are manufactured and marketed to the standards of ISO 9001/2008.

Solufeed required a website which was easy for them to update and maintain, adding products with details that growers would need was essential, as well as having access to the other pages within the website. Solufeed approached Norwich based website designers 101 as they had been impressed with their work for other clients.

101 worked with Solufeed to create a well structured website which catered for both the UK and International Market.

Smart Messenger, 101's SMS & Email marketing tool has been integrated into the Solufeed website to send automatic, personal replies to enquirers and is used to send out the regular company e-newsletter.

"We are very pleased with the website designed for us by 101 and have had some excellent feedback from our clients. 101 have been great with advice and tips on how to get into the search engines and within a few days of going live we were on page 1 of Google for 4 of the keywords we were targeting."

"The reporting on Smart Messenger really helps us to see who is reading our newsletters and which areas they are mainly interested in."
Bob Greensmith, European Marketing Manager

www.solufeed.com

Short Domains are released for registration
Nominet have released a number of previously reserved short domain names. These are mainly two letter domains such as dr.co.uk, ca.co.uk, dm.co.uk, et.org.uk etc however there are also single letter domains and number domains as well as a few others. There are 2,640 .uk short domains available in total see the full list.

Landrush Registration
To keep it fair Nominet have set up a landrush phase where anyone can submit an application to register one or more of these domains. The applications will not be on a first come first served basis and there will be a non-refundable charge for each application whether it is accepted or not.

Register your Short Domain
The cost to register a short domain is £100+vat, if your application is unsuccessful we can only refund you £50+vat

If you would like to submit an application please email julia@101ltd.com or call 01603 858250 with the details of the domains you would like to register.

To guarantee your application is submitted before Nominet close the landrush phase you must submit your application to us, along with full payment before 8th June 2011

Allocation of domains
Domains will be allocated on 23rd June 2011 and if you are the only applicant for the domain then it will be registered for you. If there are multiple applications then the domain will go to auction and the domain name will be awarded to the applicant who places the highest bid. The auctions will take place from 20 July 2011 onwards; details will be sent to participants in advance. Any profits from the auctions will go to Nominet Trust.

The remaining .uk short domains will be made available on a first-come, first served basis from 27 June 2011.

For further details please visit www.nominet.org.uk

Record Store Day website hits the headlines

Over 180 Independent Record stores to across the country gathered together together to celebrate Record Store Day on 16th April 2011. The power of the BBC news website was demonstrated by an increase in visitor numbers after an article on the 14th April.

Over 235 artists including Ozzy Osbourne, Arctic Monkeys, Lady Gaga and Tinie Tempah released exclusives, which were only available through indie record shops. www.recordstoreday.co.uk was built by 101Smart for Record Store Day and ERA the Entertainment retailers association.

Traffic to the site sat at a fairly constant level throughout the weeks leading up to the event until it was picked up by the BBC and an article appeared in the news section of the BBC website. Visitor numbers increased by 34,000% on that and subsequent days!

Luckily the burst bandwidth facility available on our server hosting was able to take up the slack and no noticeable drop in response was noticed. Perhaps the BBC ought to notify site owners if they intend to mention them to prevent heart attacks for site admins when visitor numbers go into orbit!

101Smart feature Email Marketing tool at B2B event

Holly Stibbon and Julia Smyth showcased 101's Email Marketing campaign tool SmartMessenger at the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce B2B event in March. SmartMessenger not only offers fantastic value for money, costing just £10 per month which includes the first 1,000 emails and under 0.5p per email sent thereafter.

showing support

We were happy to attend and show our support for the Norfolk Chamber who are now using SmartMessenger themselves to provide their weekly email bulletins. SmartMessenger has been recently updated to add new features to keep it ahead of the pack in terms of functionality and in total cost of use. 

Find out more at www.smartmessenger.co.uk