Australian INfront

Relationships online - making social media work for you

Posted by Rebecca Wolkenstein on 16th February 2010

There's been a bit of debate around the cost of social media lately.  Everyone I speak to seems to be wondering if there is an ROI.  ROI? 'But social media is FREE' I hear you say.  It isn't.  Social media is a bigger time sucker than Tetris and Solitaire combined, and if you don't think your time has a dollar value, I want you to think again.  I am a social media nut, partly because I love it and probably because, like our INfront founders, I have shunned the city in favour of a simpler life.  It keeps me in touch on about a hundred different channels.  There are ways to make social media meaningful, profitable and enjoyable.  In brainstorming for this article, my online mind has been going slightly berserk and the urge to 'share' may well end in you having to take in an unrealistic amount of information in one hit.  So this article, as well as being an intro to the mini-series, is going to start with a manageable piece on making Facebook work for your business.  In the next few posts we will address Facebook rules, tools and etiquette, then we will demystify Twitter and show you how to economise your social media time and generate real life leads.  My last post will deal with killer online promotions, how to seed your work for maximum exposure, and the benefits of online directories.

So let's start with how to make Facebook work for your business.  Facebook business pages are taking off, and Aussies are increasingly using Linkedin for their business connections.  So it's probably prudent to start separating friendship from commerce.  Facebook 'friends' are supposed to be friends only.  So unless you've met a contact in real life, they don't belong to your group of Facebook friends.  Invite them to join your LinkedIn network instead.  There are many reasons for not including a work prospect or client on your Facebook 'friends' list, some of these I have unfortunately learned first hand.  Here are a few:

-    everyone has a different idea of how many times you need to meet someone before adding them as a 'friend'.  Common sense dictates that people who are counting are not 'friend'-worthy, but there's no way of knowing if a prospect is uptight about these things until it's too late!  Play it safe. Don't friend.
-    you may not want your clients knowing all your personal comings and goings.  
-    most Facebook updates are written on the fly and many users cannot resist the urge to vent about the professional lives.  Not good, but it's very difficult to self censor.  Again, play it safe.
-    you often don't have your most professional hat on when using Facebook.  One slip could present you in an unflattering light to a potential client.

So the simplest way to make Facebook work for you is to set up a Facebook page for your business or a group.  There is a good article on the basics of how to do this here.

You can upload recent work, invite friends to join, and even take out a Facebook ad to gain fans.  The ads are targeted geographically and socially and they're very cheap.  Under the 'Edit Page' menu, you can find Widgets under the 'Promote your Page' menu.  Here you can send updates direct to fans' inboxes and get a Fan Box for your homepage.  Facebook is cheap to free, doesn't take a massive amount of time to update, and makes you look very web 2.0!  It's a quick way to connect and make yourself appear to be busy, in-demand and popular and in a country as small as Australia, looking busy is everything and sadly is the quickest way to make social media turn into profits. 

Your online tone should be professional with just the tiniest hint of the personal.  I can think of an example of a local photographer's Facebook and Twitter feeds where his producer posts all of his updates and news.  She says what a 'great' guy he is and how everybody loves working with him.  It speaks to me in a voice which says 'I care enough about you to try and source work from you but not enough to make an appearance personally.'  This tone is especially dangerous on Twitter where Twitterers can smell cardboard cut-out attempts at social media engagement from a mile away.  They unfollow.  But that's a discussion for another day.

in fact my next post is about using Twitter online and offline and how to streamline your various feeds.

I would welcome any discussion on this talk and any other tips you might have.  I am especially interested in hearing your views on etiquette.

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