Social Media Or Phone Book?

Social Media Or Phone Book?

Old habits die hard! Despite the rapid fall in percentage of people
looking for services through the yellow pages, business owners are
still bowing to the traditions and spending substantial amounts of
money on phone book advertising.

As you are reviewing your advertising budget I am sure you always have
in mind what's in it for you, and there is a time where you must make
an educated choice.

In a recent national radio interview one of the speakers was asked how
they did their searching for services like plumbers, or products like
restaurants in their neighborhood. One answered "I go online" and the
other one said "Word of Mouth".

In fact he revealed that he had expressively asked yellow pages NOT to
deliver the phone book to their place...But that request was declined
because the only credibility left to the phone book is its distribution!

Is it a better idea to rely on your website and your social media
marketing for your lead generation? Here are 5 reasons why the answer is
more and more overwhelmingly YES:

1.Unlimited Brand awareness
Using the web and in particular social media, there is no end to how much
information your can give about your brand. This is free, renewable
advertising real estate, with a unique chance to showcase your point of
difference. Buying this amount of space would be totally prohibitive in
print advertising

2.Interactive advertising
Online you are able to get instant feed back from clients about their
experience but also from people who haven't used your business yet. You
get to create a relationship before purchase

3. Instant Word Of Mouth
Social media marketing creates a conversation that may never happen at
the pub or around the dinner table. It also allows word of mouth to spread
between strangers. You can easily do your market research by surfing a business's
facebook wall

4. Standing Out Of The Crowd At No Extra Cost
Custom designed facebook fan pages are a key to initial interaction. As more
people use Facebook to do their research, many more businesses use custom
design to improve visitors' first impression. Check this tool to give a great
reason for visitors to "like" your page. Why buy a big expensive ad on the
phone book?

5. Controlling Brand Reputation
The Conversation you are having with your clients and prospects is a much more
credible way to control first impressions than dominating pages of print
advertising. This is where small to medium businesses have the opportunity to
compete on a level playing field, even with big companies

Facebook Accounts Versus Fanpages: Still Confused?

This is an area that has been creating a lot of confusion in business owners minds:
What I advise my clients to do is slightly different. It does not involve migrating their account into a page. This is how it goes.
1.Keep your personal account as a "family and friends only" account
2.Start a new account where you keep your posts, photos and contacts.. exclusively business related. One of the main advantages is that you can join and create groups from your account as a business person
3. Create your fan page administered from your account. As an admin you will be able to "switch" to "Use Facebook as Page" when you want to start "liking" other pages as part of your main lead generation strategy
4.Send a note or a message to all your business related friends (from your original personal account) and suggest them to become fans of your page or friends of your new business related profile

Firstly I find this a great way to keep your family and friends completely separate and in parallel, make yourself known as a business person, with Fan page attached to your account.
Secondly if you intend to use facebook as a tool for a proactive lead generation strategy, which you should, you still have access to groups, as well as "Liking" other pages from your Fan Page to get instant brand exposure.

Your thoughts are welcome!