Facebook Fan Page Best Practices
June 20, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
I have been managing a couple of brand’s fan pages directly for some time – Savvy Cellar Wines (which I’m a Co-Owner of) for over two years and Organic Wine Review (which was video blog launched last year). My consulting practice SmokeJumper Strategy is increasing being called upon to assist software and Internet companies with their social media and marketing strategy, which inevitably includes Facebook. I was also recently asked by Facebook to become an Advisor to their Local product and marketing efforts.
During this time, I’ve experimented with many aspects of managing a fan page for a small & local businesses: from times to post, different media types and observing and measuring what types of posts seem to drive social interaction. Along the way, we’ve managed to grow our fan base (now at 2,100), hopefully engage them in a positive way and taken advantage of the advances Facebook has engineered into their tools and apps for fan pages, their advertising platform and their analytics to measure audiences and responses to actions.
Why Physical Collateral Still Matters (in an Online World)
May 26, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
“The new phone book’s here! The new phone book’s here! . . . I’m in print! Things are going to start happening to me now.” Nathan R. Johnson, The Jerk
In a world that has gone mad over all things digital, is physical collateral necessary? It is an interesting question. Many businesses these days forgo what was once the bedrock of local marketing – the yellow pages. Instead they are faced with a bevy of interesting and often interactive ways to connect with their consumers and communities: Websites, Facebook, directories and review sites such as Yelp, online marketplaces, Twitter, YouTube, mobile phones, daily deal sites, Foursquare and other geo-based check-in services. So given this, why would a local business invest any time and $’s whatsoever on physical collateral? After all it is expensive, often is out-of-date shortly after printed, can’t be shared, is not viral, does not scale, <insert your favorite Internet marketing hyperbole here>, etc.
I’m Tired of One Night Stands
February 21, 2011 by admin · 6 Comments
At the risk of mixing metaphors, Luke Hohmann recently described Groupon, Living Social and other daily deal sites as enticing businesses into one night stands. At first I laughed but as I thought about my direct experiences with a plethora of group buying sites, I think he may be right. There is no doubt that these daily deal sites can deliver a deluge of coupon-grubbing customers to a small, local business’s door step. But at what cost? Negative margin, stretching service delivery to breaking point, alienation of regular loyal customers, attracting customers who don’t spend more than the deal amount and won’t ever come back are some of the well documented potential pitfalls. (And hopefully not STD’s!)
I often describe Groupon, Living Social and other daily deal sites as providing small businesses a large, fishing drift net to cast broadly into the ocean; the result is you will no doubt collect a lot of sea life, but only some of which will be the targeted species you are actually fishing for. Luke’s metaphor is certainly more colorful and may, in fact, be truer than mine.
Fanminder | 5 Questions for Paul Rosenfeld & Tracy Grover
I met Paul Rosenfeld last year when he came to pitch Savvy Cellar Wine Bar & Wine Shop before it opened in Mountain View, CA on the merits of his new mobile marketing service called Fanminder. Always being one to extend and try new things and wanting to dip our toe into the mobile world, I said yes (plus Paul is very passionate and convincing). He is the Co-Founder and CEO of Fanminder. He spent about 15 years working for two of the best companies catering to small businesses — American Express and Intuit. At American Express Paul helped lead its first gift card program for merchants and worked in the Small Business Services division. At Intuit, he was General Manager QuickBooks Merchant Account Service; QuickBooks Online Edition; and led development of the FinanceWorks online banking suite.
Tracy Grover is Co-Founder and COO of Fanminder. Most recently, Tracy was Vice President of Product Management for AccountNow. Previously she served as Director of Marketing for LoopNet, which automates online marketing tools for small real estate businesses to help them compete with the big guys. Before that Tracy built, launched, and marketed online banking solutions for small businesses (for Bank of America & Silicon Valley Bank), a secure mobile application used by doctors & public officials (Certicom) and the first mass market online credit card, NextCard.
I recently sat down with Paul and Tracy and fired off 5 questions for them . . . .
1) What was the genesis of Fanminder?
Paul: Tracy and I started Fanminder literally in the teeth of the recession, in October 2008. We had very good paying jobs – I was the Chief Marketing Officer and Tracy was the VP Product Management for a local start-up. We saw how all the larger, Fortune-sized retailers were rushing into mobile and social marketing but when we “walked down main street” we didn’t see any local businesses doing anything.
Yelp’s Douchebaggery Issue
January 3, 2011 by admin · 5 Comments
Yelp has a douche bag issue. This is not new. But a recent experience made me think about it in a new light.
Savvy Cellar Wines, a local wine bar located in Silicon Valley that my wife runs, has been relatively active with social media: facebook, twitter, location-based services, review sites, etc. In theory, I believe that social media and the act of putting publishing tools into the hands of the masses is a good thing. However there are aberrations and, in practice, the theoretical ideal is sometimes not achieved – businesses can being unjustifiably vilified by anonymous (or semi-anonymous people), left with little recourse. Let’s walk through a humorous example. (Warning: some of the language is colorful and not for the proper or feint of heart.)