Facebook Business Pages - Tips

Creating a Business Page

Facebook have made the setup of business pages very simple and easy. Here are a few tips to guide you through.  

Tip 1

A business page is different from a personal page.  If you set up personal page advertising or representing your business, Facebook will remove it.

Make sure that you have completely logged out of your personal page back to the Facebook home page http://www.facebook.com/. 

Under ‘Sign Up’ you will see a link to ‘Create a Page for celebrity, business etc… This link http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php  will open an easy step by step process to create your business page.

Tip 2

A business page must be associated with personal page. Facebook and done this for many reasons and it does confuse people when creating a page. Do not try and setup a dummy personal account as Facebook can track the address, email and phone numbers used and you risk having your page removed.  This personal page becomes the owner of the business page.

Tip 3

There is no public link between your business page and personal page.  Making yourself the owner allows you to create other personal Facebook page users the right to be an administrator on your business page.

Tip 4

Any business page administrators and you can have more than one, must have a personal Facebook page.

Tip 5

You ‘Like’ a business page and have ‘Friends’ on your personal page.

Tip 6

A personal page is limited to 5000 'Friends', whereas a business page has unlimited 'Likes'.

Tip 7

After 25 Likes you can create a Facebook URL to match your company name i.e http://www.facebook.com/pages/AutoBase-Ltd/.  To do this you need to be login in and go to http://www.facebook.com/username/.  Be careful as this cannot be changed.

Administration

Once your business page is set up, you can access it through your personal page under the ‘Home’ tab. Select ‘Use Facebook as Page’.

Tip 8

Use the ‘Switch’ button to access your business page as the administrator. It you click on the Facebook page number you will display the page as the public would have no access to the ‘Edit’ functions.

Sharing a Vehicle Listing

Tip 9

 There are two options to allow the sharing of your vehicle listings onto your business Facebook page.

Option A

Ensure that you have ‘Switched’ from your private Facebook page to your business page. Find your listings on  www.AutoBase.co.nz.  Open the listing you wish to share and click the Facebook icon above the image. A box with ‘Share this link’ will be displayed containing the vehicle details.

Make sure that the icon displayed in your business page icon not your personal profile picture.  If you’re personal profile picture is showing you have not switched pages correctly and the share will be on your personal page. Now type ant additional comments you wish to make into the ‘Write Something’ box. Then press the ‘Share Link’ button.

Option B

From with the DealerBase Manage Stock menu select ‘Advertising Twitter/Facebook’. Select the vehicle listings you wish to share.

Tip 10

Pressing the Facebook icon will share the listing on your personal page; pressing the Facebook business icon will share the vehicle onto your business page. You may also be asked to allow this application to have access.


For more information, check out Facebook's instructions here.

Social Media for Dummies

This is a great, simple synopsis of the world of Social Media, from Greg Savage.

Facebook is like a pub: It’s an informal place where people get together with old friends, shoot the breeze, tell risqué jokes, and meet people they have never spoken to before. There are few rules and people certainly tend to misbehave there at times, often feeling embarrassed later about what they have said, shown or done! But real friendships can start there, and what’s more business can be done over a beer in the Facebook pub, so it’s not to be ignored.

Twitter is like a cocktail party: There is lots going on, and it’s very high energy. Many conversations are happening at once. Lots of people are talking and far fewer are listening. People drop in and out of conversations and if you like a conversation you might share it with another group. Sure you get the odd twitter cocktail party guest who behaves inappropriately, but mostly it’s pretty cordial, with more manners, and better language, than at the Facebook Pub.

LinkedIn is like a Tradeshow or a corporate conference: It’s business-like. People are there to work, learn and connect with like-minded business people. Mostly everyone is aware they are ‘on show’, and put their best foot forward. At the “Conference” you watch your language, dress up a little.

YouTube is like Times Square on New Years Eve or the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras: Pretty much anything goes! People will let their hair down and willingly make a fool of themselves, but no one really cares… until they meet you at the LinkedIn Conference, maybe.

A blog is like Hyde Park Corner in London: You can stand on your soapbox and say pretty much whatever you like. But your audience is fickle and will drift in and out, and judge you very quickly to be an interesting expert on a niche subject or a quack to be jeered or ignored. But don’t ignore it because lucid orators on street corners spark ideas!

MySpace is like Woodstock: The young and the crazy populated it, but it’s a fading memory for most.

Establishing loyalty through Social Media

Social media is a highly effective way of maintaining a relationship with our customers. Retaining clients in what is a long sales cycle is one of the challenges we face in the automotive industry. By keeping in regular contact during what are traditionally dormant periods through social media we can improve loyalty and generate repeat sales and referrals.

The Nielsen New Zealand Social Media Report Wave 2: 2010 described Social Media as where consumers have the power to review, compare, rate, and recommend ideas, products, brands, and anything they connect with. During the last year 73% of Kiwis using the internet turned to other consumers’ opinions found in blogs, message boards, comments on social networking sites (such as Twitter or Facebook) and other ‘social’ websites. The credibility of social media networking was expressed by those surveyed saying that friends and family referrals were “Trusted, impartial, reliable, experienced, knowledgeable - knowledge from a person with a genuine wish for me to get the best deal.” We have talked about the power of Twitter and Facebook in previous articles, but as an industry we are increasingly adopting other forms of rich media (ie. interactive multimedia) to spread our message like videos and blogs.

Video

Fronting a video can add value to our business by creating a personality and brand that people can identify with, and relate to - look at The Mad Butcher! And people are looking - the Nielsen Online Social Media Report 2010 showed that New Zealanders are increasingly turning to rich media to support their decision making. In 2010, a massive 1.6 million Kiwis* watched an online video about products or services they were thinking of buying. Online videos were mostly accessed straight from a company website when viewers were researching products they were considering buying – this was followed by YouTube (You can also embed YouTube videos into your own company website). YouTube has a male skew (62%) and has a large proportion under 40*, targeting our videos to our audience will help us get the best results.

Blogs

A blog is like a message board and can be part of a website or stand alone. The blogger writes regular entries listed by date, often with pictures, video and room for visitors to leave comments. Several Kiwi automotive identities regularly write blogs within the industry. A good writer will gather a following, and is great advertising for their dealership. You can talk not only about your business and products, but review vehicles, or discuss industry news, events and views. This is yet another way to stay connected with your customers and continue to put a face, personality and credibility behind your business and brand. In the last 12 months more than 1.4 million Kiwis* read online blogs.

Sharing

Another reason that social media works so well to retain clients and generate referrals is that it is just so easy to share information and products online. At the click of a button you can email dozens of friends a classified listing, video, website or blog to check out, or post a listing or link on your Facebook or Twitter for all to see. For example Trade Me Motors and AutoBase now have buttons on every listing allowing viewers to share that listing by posting it on their Twitter or Facebook site. In the past year 62% of Online New Zealanders over 18 watched online video involving a product or service and 44% sent or shared that video clip with a friend!

Connect, Contribute and Converse

Social media provides us with an array of simple tools we can utilize to continue to Connect, Contribute and Converse with existing customers and prospective buyers. The great thing about social media is that it’s FREE - all it takes is time. It is sometimes hard to know where to start and what to use that’s why it is important that you have a solid digital strategy and establish the medium that best suits you and your business. Some people love making videos of their vehicles and have the charisma to be in front of a camera. Others enjoy writing so may start a blog to post articles about their dealership and products, or review vehicles.

Step into the ring, get amongst it

Updates to your website, YouTube channel or Blog give you the opportunity to enter the social media marketing ring with some clout; the delivery once again is your choice eg. you can use a link on Twitter with its short sharp jabs (140 character tweets) which are persistent, quick and timely or Facebook’s right hook delivering an in depth well connected shot . Whatever you do don’t sit on your hands, Social Media is an opportunity!

*Source: Nielsen Online Social Media Report 2010, surveying the New Zealand online population aged 18+ of 2,628,000 ?

Social Media – Word of mouth on STEROIDS

We are always looking for ways for our dealers to maximize their online presence, and have had dealers ask us how they can integrate Social Media, particularly Facebook and Twitter into their digital strategy. That’s why we have recently added some new features to our dealer services area which allows dealers to send vehicle listings to their Facebook or Twitter accounts. This is another ‘arrow’ that can be utilised to drive online traffic back to your stock. There’s been a lot of talk amongst dealers lately about social media – what is it and do I need it? Is it a flash in the pan or is it actually relevant to my business? Here is a bit of a brief about what it all entails.  

What is so important about Facebook and Twitter?

In the 2009 Nielsen Online New Zealand Automotive Search Report; “Friends and Family” were the most useful resource when buying a vehicle. Other studies support this and a 2010 report says “In terms of the impact of Social Media on advertising, word of mouth is the popular option with 78% of customers trusting peer recommendations on sites. While, only 14% trust advertisements”

Facebook and Twitter are word of mouth on steroids, giving businesses the ability to tap into these trusted networks of friends, family and followers, which ultimately leads to sales.

What is Facebook’s business application?

Facebook was originally created for everyday people (in fact university students) to keep in touch and share photos. As an extension of this, individuals can also create a Facebook Page to share interests, or in our case, business information. Individuals can “like” your business’s Facebook page, so every time you post something they will get an update in their News feed on their personal wall.  A post may be as simple as writing a comment or you can create links back to your listings and more in depth information on your website. You can manage the information posted on your Facebook page, and share it using the networks of friends and family already connected on Facebook.  

How does Twitter work?

Twitter has also exploded in New Zealand.  After setting up your free Twitter account you choose who to ”follow”. This means when you log into Twitter, you are kept up to date with the news & information from the people who you want to listen to (“follow”).  Tweets are posts which are limited to 140 characters, are predominantly text-based and can include links to websites, articles, videos and images.  Tweets should be timely and relevant to your audience of followers (people who follow you, to listen to what you have to say).  80% of Twitter users use Twitter on mobile devices (Smartphones like an iPhone) which have become an essential tool to deliver high frequency conversations and keep up with the play.

Auto marketers and dealers are increasingly realising the value of Social Media and using it to increase their online presence, or ‘digital footprint’. Today, almost half of all Kiwis using the Internet are interacting with companies via social networking sites.

Social Media can be used as an effective marketing tool to:

• make it easy for friends, family and followers to refer your business or vehicles
• engage in conversations about your business or product and reinforce your brand
• promote specials, events and information
• be aware of what your competitors are doing and discover trends

Like having a company website, using sites such as Twitter & Facebook needs to be well-executed and managed. So before you start, ensure that you have a digital media strategy. A badly managed Facebook or Twitter account can do more damage than good. Look at corporate behemoth Nestlé, reduced to a vulnerable deer in the headlights due to their badly managed Facebook page in one of the year’s most epic corporate blunders. Once Nestlé put up their Facebook page, it was lambasted with ‘digital protests’ and abuse from the public and Greenpeace  for their use of palm oil and using companies accused of illegal deforestation of rainforests. Questions about Nestlé’s products were being asked on the page by the public, but Nestlé were not answering them. The page became flooded with protests and negative comments about the brand. The furor rapidly grew from Facebook to Twitter and is now all over the media like a tumor. Given that Google now index Twitter and Facebook, all that negative publicity comes up when you type ‘Nestlé’ into Google. A Nestlé employee admitted ‘The person responding for Nestlé seems to be junior. In future they need to look at the person who is responsible for monitoring the page and use someone more senior.'

Social Media is here to stay and is growing within the New Zealand automotive industry, but having a solid digital strategy in place before entering the social media arena is absolutely vital. As a business the way you engage should be quite different to your personal approach. When engaging be authentic and remember these 3 C's - Connect, Contribute, Converse. If you want to have a discussion about social media, give us a call, post a comment or send us a tweet; we’d be happy to hear from you.