How Businesses Win New Customers on Facebook

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How Businesses Win New Customers on Facebook

Written by: Donna Ann Peck 636 views

Still sending out direct mail campaigns and ads? You may be better off launching a Facebook campaign. Small-business owners who don’t update their marketing efforts are missing out on the fun of the digital age. With a business-oriented Facebook Page, you can get attention for your services, connect with your customers, and build relationships with your fan base on Facebook.

In the travel industry, tour operators are leveraging Facebook, Twitter, blogs and other social media. Facebook has been the most successful, in terms of trip bookings, say the CEOs of Austin-Lehman Adventures and Ciclismo Classico. facebook_1

Both companies spend less time promoting their businesses and more time getting to know their customers. Lauren Hefferon, founder and director of Ciclismo Classico says that the company’s Facebook page is a communication bonanza.

Learning about the customer experience

“When I was a tour guide I was always with guests, getting to know them and directly experiencing them as individuals. But that ended when I became bound more to my office. The people magic was gone for me and I missed it. With the advent of Facebook I am now seeing pictures of their families, getting to know their interests, seeing their ups and downs. I am getting to know them as people, rather than just as database prospects or alumni [past customers],” says Hefferon.

For this business owner sharing on Facebook is “real, authentic and live.” “On our Facebook Fan Page I try to post items that not only have to do with Ciclismo but with our customers’ general love for travel, bicycling, culture and personal development.

The responses to her posts give her a keener understanding of her customers likes and dislikes. “I am letting them guide me to experiences that turn them on,” she says.

Sizzle, excitement and compelling stories

After a year on Facebook Pages, Ciclismo Classico has become a community of guides, guests and staff. “We see the exchanges and excitement growing along with the number of fans we now have. It’s really viral and quite impressive,” she says.

Hefferon has seen spikes in website visits due to spikes in the number of fans. “At Ciclismo we believe in the high-touch approach and Facebook fits perfectly into this strategy,” she says.

Austin-Lehman Adventures has also found that storytelling is a magnet in its growing Facebook community. Dan Austin, co-founder and director of Austin-Lehman Adventures, says that its guides are reaching out and sharing personal stories on Facebook and then inviting past, current and prospective guests to share their own experiences, photos, questions and suggestions. “Guests love being able to vicariously travel and go adventuring through the posts from our guides, and then share (or brag) about their own personal exploits,” Austin says.

Fans are exchanging between one another and a guide, he says. “Complete strangers are planning trips together for next season,” says Austin. In one week, the company’s fan following grew by 300 percent. Austin attributes the spike in fans to the company’s trip leaders and guide community who are posting daily.

Best advice

Create a business account at Facebook Pages. Type in your business name and click create Page. You want to set up your page so you can easily communicate, distribute information, engage with your customers, and capture new audiences virally through your customer’s recommendations to their friends.

Become familiar with the dashboard. Upload a photo for your business. You can also add page administrators, but each person needs to have a user profile. Click Info to add your website, company overview, mission and produces. Click the Click the + button to add tabs.

Learn the jargon. The Wall is a central location for recent information posted by you and about you. Click the tabs to add videos, photos and notes. Choose whether or not to publish them to your stream. Publishing the post, in Facebook jargon, is publishing to the Wall. These posts also appear in your fans’ News Feeds. Click Wall to view your up-to-date content and contributions from fans.

Get people talking about the experience and opportunities your business provides. On your website encourage your customers to interact with your Facebook Page and show their support as fans. Refer to your Facebook Page:

Find us on Facebook to discover more about…
Company X on Facebook
Check out the Company X Page on Facebook
Find us on Facebook

Invite people one by one to share your Facebook fan page with their friends. “This is the most authentic, caring way to do this,” says Hefferon. The more your fans interact with your Page, the more opportunities your business has to generate interesting social stories that can spread virally through Facebook.

Take advantage of Facebook improvements. Pages now have the flexibility of customizable tabs. Austin-Lehman added a tab that reads: #1 Tour Operator. Also new, you can publish to fans based on their location and language. A post that is published to Facebook users in a specific location or language will only be visible to those users. All other users will never see the post in the News Feed, on your Page, or anywhere else across Facebook.

Businesses want to tailor communication to fans in different cities, states, and countries. Starbucks, for example, who has fans across the world, may want to talk about a new drink currently only available in the U.K. Their U.K. fans will be more interested and more likely to take action or share this post with friends. In the case of a celebrity, tennis champion Roger Federer may want to separately thank his English-speaking and French-speaking fans in their respective languages.

Who would have guessed a few years ago Facebook’s business potential. Share your Facebook experiences in a comment.