Facebook marketing for business?

Have you noticed how almost all adverts on TV now direct their buyers, targets into Facebook?

Facebook it seems has the World in the grip. The large ad agencies are pushing Facebook as the best way to get new customers for their clients. I think they have it wrong.

The NEW gurus that have done or bought Facebook course are selling Facebook as the only way to get business (despite the fact most know nothing about business).

You can sit behind anyone playing with their phone and see them checking in or checking out something, someone, some where on Facebook.

Recently on the Metro line in Paris with my daughter, the conversation in front of us was clearly in French but with one word dominating the conversation… Facebook.

Then of course there was getting back to my Parisienne apartment in the evening the first call to action for my daughter was to get the Mac book out and log into Facebook until every last moment of her awakeness had vanished.

FACEBOOK 'BUSINESS' ADDICTION

So although Facebook appears to have a huge chunk of mankind gripped and almost 'addicted' … the real question for anyone in business is… what effect does it have on your business … OR SALES?

So I thought I would share with you my own experiences so far with Facebook and relate to you what I have and am seeing in my world of direct marketing.

First the new Facebook (fakebook) gurus and REAL web marketing gurus.

My big question is what do these facebook guys know about business? After all most have seen, bought, read or just copied a new fad that has gripped them as well as others. Most have zilch experience with business?

When the web really started to grow in the late 90s early 2000, this was when I first got into the web after 15 years with town centre businesses.

The affiliate game was the BIG talk. Everything and everyone revolved around how easy it would be to get rich, having nothing apart from the link to someone else product.

It took a few years but eventually we all discovered that the reality was far bigger than the story. The reality was that to be a great affiliate, make money doing affiliate links, you first had to be a specialist in web traffic NOT websites! Then it went beyond web traffic, it went into targeted web traffic after all some of us were getting great numbers with NO sales. Some were getting huge numbers and no sales.

Along came the likes of the brilliant Declan Dunn, genius Ken Evoy, science like Patrick Anderson and revealed to us the real secret of traffic and traffic strategies so we could make money as affiliates.

Then eccentric geniuses like Marlon Sanders set the map for success with his incredible, Amazing Formula, the blueprint for making sales after all Marlon had been involved in real business, he got it, he understood what worked and the system for buying.

Then the next problem we faced was conversions, how do we convert, how do we make sales happen from the traffic. Even I had grown a list in the early days from nothing to almost 10,000 selling to those looking for haircuts from my hair tips and secrets website. I had big numbers on the list but couldn't sell a thing.

The gap was quickly filled by the likes of Yanik Silver and his Sales Letter software. Now you could create a letter that would convert the visitors into buyers by simply clicking a mouse and finally copy and pasting into our webpages.

Of course the bottom line was simple. Not many people could make money as affiliates as they could not give the time, effort and energy to making the changes, learning he new things needed to get the sales.

Most of the early affiliates simply left, got a job and re-joined society as a regular human.

That was the early wave of making money online. Later came other smaller waves yet bigger. Smaller as in the substance was low, bigger as in they had the energetic push of the seminar. The early seminars I recall were great.

Filled with real people in business, real people wanting to be successful in business, real people with real intentions to do great things.

Some did, some successes were recorded, it was cool. Then I would say almost 100% of audiences though went, listened, left with big intentions, were hard-sold 'how to' products like crazy, but within 3 months were back to their regular way of creating a living.

Now today we have Facebook.

This time is different, very different.

Before we all used to try and divert traffic into our websites from search engines, now we are trying to tap into existing traffic on Facebook for sales.

Here's what I feel. This doesn't mean I'm right but it's how I feel about what I am seeing.

LIKES on a page doesn't mean sales. It means two things. The owners of the page has a better feeling for himself or herself or ego, that they have a lot of likes.

Lets face it, how often to you go back to a page you like, Ever?

Likes are a measure of approval from the audience and NOT a measure of sales or the success of a business.

Recently I had a skype call with a good online partner of mine. He had just added 42,000 LIKES to one page. I was interested so I called him on skype and asked him for the juice.

• He shared with me that there were no sales or spikes in sales from the 42,000 likes. 
• He shared with me that despite promoting to the 42,000 they were certainly not buyers.
• He shared with me the reason he had done it was very simple… it looked good to those that came, arrived and saw the high number… PERCEPTION!

ARE YOU BORING?

Other things I have seen on Facebook is friends, LIKES get bored easy. They want to be entertained. I have seen more comments on an uploaded photo of a plate of food than I have on the generic copy and paste quotes, pasted daily. I have seen comments and interactions on a photo or video of a skateboard jump than I have on any business link.

Facebook seem to drop in, they search, look for moments to capture their eyes, read comments, reply to comments, post comments and then vanish back into their jobs or whatever they are doing.

Yet the Ad agencies are sending their clients customers into Facebook based on the fact that 750 million people are subscribed and over 70% return daily. Most send them to Facebook for what? Because there is a big crowd hanging out there?

That raises another question of course. It's this. If you sell course on 'Easy to learn English' would you go to a place where it is 100% English to sell. You go there based on one thing, it's busy, it's packed and SOME out of the 100,000 daily footfall will buy?

or

Do you go to the French quarter where the French community is waiting to come to England to work? There might just be 300 people there but is there a chance of more sales if the offer is irresistible?

Just because Facebook gets 750,000,000 members and has a daily return rate (apparently) of 70% does not equate to sales.

FAKEBOOK GURUS

Then of course the Facebook gurus that are selling anything and anything to get your money. They offer 25 facebook accounts, they offer tricks, opt in pages, plugins, apps and more just to try and steal some of facebooks traffic.

They will happily show you how to get more fans, more friends, more exposure but the reality is this… Facebook isn't stupid, they won't allow anyone to abuse their website for long before the block, ban and unfriend you.

These guys make their money selling you how to make money on facebook, MOSTLY NOT by making money on Facebook.

That raises a question if you are in business, how much time and effort should a business plough into Facebook as a marketing medium?

• Do you see Donald Trump posting on Facebook photos of his sandwich daily?
• Do you see Richard Branson getting heavily involved on Facebook chatter?
• Can you imagine Sir Alan Sugar sitting for hour going through Facebook and posting things like "I've just signed a 6 figure deal, This year is going great I have got 3 new clients all worth a million or I am so grateful that I have me and my cat in my life, thank you for allowing me to be Alan Sugar"

Sounds ridiculous in black and white of course.

Lets face it, business is about relationships, building a relationship with or prospect, creating trust that if they deal with us we will look after them.

Creating and build and crafting irresistible offers using the art, the science of mindset marketing that is service based, that is relationship focused, that has the buyers best interests at heart.

Creating a list, building that list, sharing with that list a trusting voice that they want to be part of.

Yes Facebook is there and won't vanish, it should be used but if we as businesses fall into the trap of thinking its a magic bullet we are going to be in trouble.

Those that are building their businesses around facebook marketing are building marketing on sand.

Those that claim and make claims of the almost shamanic business powers of Facebook will vanish at some point like some of the early marketeers in the late 90s.

It'll take time to balance out and for the tiny, tiny few it'll be a good sounding board to write and voice from.

I'd advise you to ask yourselves some questions.

1. Facebook is free but is your time free? How do you value your time per hour, how much time do you invest into facebook? It's never free

2. How much real business have you had via facebook? Can you measure it? If it can't be measured, should you be guessing in business?

3. How many marketing strategies do you use daily? Is Facebook part of the big picture? Do you use any of the 225 ways to take your business to market that I can list? 

4. Do you now send all of your traffic to a facebook forward slash domain rather than to your own domain? If you replied yes, why? Because you were told to or because you are getting a huge benefit from facebook marketing?

5. Look at your own user habits on facebook. Do you spend ages on certain pages? Do you go back to likes? Do you contact products or business through facebook?

Review your own habits and as one of the 750 million on facebook you'll see the habits of most through your own.

Bottom line is this.

Marketing a business is about profit, it's really that simple. Is Facebook making you a profit or is it creating losses for you due to time lost, traffic lost, investment lost and an addictive distraction?

I hope this helps you.

If you need advice, direction from a marketing man with over 26 years in direct marketing… contact me from this site.

Is the seminar dead or has the death of the seminar been highly exaggerated?

It's true, at one time and STILL people will pay huge amounts to enter the doors into the massive almost church like arena of the seminar. But it's also true in 2011 attendees like that are rare and few and far between.

Yet seminars apparently disguised as training weekends  are finding it increasingly difficult to fill a room of any kind.

One multi-million selling author and speaker in the USA very recently had to cancel 1000 room event after sales of just 15 tickets.

Yet the reality is you can still learn and discover and be inspired from seminars.

What went wrong?

Not too long ago I created copy for an event. The vent filled up. Why? It really was an event where experts shared their skills.

Seminars over the past few years have become nothing more than a way to fill a room full of those looking, seeking, searching for a better way of life yet what most don't realize until they are there are the majority of speakers now have almost sniper like training in the power of persuasion.

Recently I met a speaker. Her name shall remain nameless. She told me she had just made her first 70,000 pounds from a stage.

I asked her how long she had been speaking. She told me this was her first speaking event. I asked her how long she had been in business? She told me she had previously been working in a bar until she was persuaded to train as a speaker by a sales speaking coach. I asked her well what do you sell then?

She replied… 'whatever they will buy' … I asked her really, she told me… 'really'.

And that is the death of the seminar in a short story but why?

Well the seminar as it was originated with the churches. Speakers came from churches and began to use their persuasion skills to buyers Sell fear, offer salvation.

Then racing ahead into recent years seminars were known for one thing. Getting close to a real expert that has really walked the walked and created something special they want to share.

People would pay high tickets to see and hear, Tom Peters, Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn and many, many other true, real-life almost genius like experts that would share their story, share some advice and get paid for doing so. They made their cash by creating a hungry marketplace through a fantastic reputation. That is why some can offer coaching for a million plus dollars a year.

The bastardization of the seminar took a huge turn with the advent of the web. Suddenly the internet became a more than just a place the army and nerds were to share communications, it was now a place of the searcher who went from MS DOS to windows and AOL, Alta Vista portals.

Legendary names like Declan Dunn, Patrick Anderson, Ken Evoy, Marlon Sanderson and more discovered ways to create a business suing the web. They would sell real-stuff and advise others to do just the same. My first sale online was actually a Nintendo game. A real thing that went in a real box.

Sales began to rise, giant began to fall. Alta Vista would vanish into the nether lands of nothingness just to become part of web history, then Google appeared and re-wrote the web only to be kick up the backside by the herculean Facebook boys. Web 3 was born.

Some were making money from the web, not many but some. Other wanted to know how to make money doing just that.

The seminar world took another direction.

Rooms would be packed with those wanting to hear exactly how to make money online. And they were packed to the hilt.

Speakers were not speakers like those of old. These were nerdie guys that had worked out how to sell stuff online. They would show you how to sell more guitars, more boxes, more anything online and the crowd loved it.

Attendees would buy, buy, buy but the problem was most of the speakers wouldn't be sure how to deliver. After all these guys were not established in the rule of business. Yet cash was being made.

The graduation from that to today came the advent of the non expert, non speaker, non business person that could make a few things up, create slides that were slick and simply show others how to create an internet business by showing others how to create an internet business.

Event organizers saw the huge potential here. Big and bigger and Goliath rooms would be rented. Thousands would be put into those rooms. The non experts in nay thing in particular would talk about Google, Facebook and how to jack them, twist them and manipulate them for more and more sales.

Not only did the non experts not increase their own business skills but they invested heavily into persuasion skills.

Bottom line is over the years the audience now know what to expect. More persuasion, more credit card handovers, more crap, non expert experts that really, truly could barely run their own business never mind the business of others.

The seminar went from the church to the training room to the arena of mass deception on mass. Pockets were picked, banks were emptied on promises that could never be fulfilled.

Years on… the question is has the seminar died?

The answer is not really.

The audience have become more and more tuned into the reality of the lies and persuasion being taught from stages.

If you want to fill a room it has to be set from the greatest intention. The people in the room must have a value in their mind related to what will be shared.

This will take a shift in the mind of the hosts, the mind of the speakers and the mind of the attendee.

The death of the seminar … ?

Did you realize there are almost 220 ways … at least … to market your business?

Yet the truth is most business use just one way.

Some really interesting stuff taking place with Social media. In fact events are popping up all over the place making proclamations of making tens of thousands and even millions from having a facebook account.

Here's a few facts you need to be aware of.

• Social media is amazing for business… but it is just ONE tool of many.
  
• Social media constantly changes… you must make some time to keep up with the changes.
  
• Social media hates tricksters that try and beat the system. The tricks always get found out. The tricks always get shut down.
  

I saw one half-hearted amatuer recenlty on a stage selling the audience a system to beat facebook and make a killing while doing it.

He offered to set up 25 accounts and spam the lists like crazy. $5,000 he was asking. He asked it based on his numbers that they would get a 50k return… crazy…!

Maybe they would but for how long?

Can that be considered as part of a strong marketing strategy or is it business built on sand? After all the social media outlets can make changes at the click of a mouse.

My advice… It works but play by the rules set out by social media and you can use it to incredible effect for your business.

DO NOT use it as your only way to market.

Facebook Farce

Its interesting the volume of new marketing people that shout loud about the giant facebook and how it will and can save your business.

• Open an account (it's free)
• Add lots of photos (its free)
• Put up videos as proof (it's free)
• Add content daily (it's free)
• Then drive as many people as you can to the page and HOPE you might get some sales.

Interesting also that there are a lot of businesses out there following this advice whilst at the same time ignoring the other 216 ways to market your business that we currently endorse and use.

Here's the problem.

Just because facebook has massive free traffic, huge free space, monster like connections all over the place to his, her and they're wall it takes this single thing out of the equation. In fact it's almost dismissed, erased from the mind of new marketers.

It's one simple word.

Targeting.

Are your targets on Fcebook? If they are how do you find them?

You know the truth is, it can work. We personally created an increase for one client of 53.4% over a 7 month period so it can work.

The facebook farce is this though …you have 217 ways to market your business. Why focus on just one way that will…

• Take traffic away from your website
• Focus on untargeted prospects
• Put your business in the hands of a Goliath that could make changes any second, any day.

Need expert advice.

Just contact us below and we'll be there.

To Marketing Glory

AFS