Is it me or is it Facebook?

[fabulous_photo_gifts]

Facebook facebook facebook - everyone is saying you should (as a business) be on facebook but I just don;t get it.

The interface is just horrible, I feel like i need a degree in physics to use it.

I can never remember what I did last time to add a blog or include content etc. and the tools and buttons for doing so never seem to be in the same place twice.

I create a fan page but can't get back to it - I seem to have two profiles now and I struggled for ages to suss what my fanpage url was. Not even sure now that I've got it right.

And just when I think I've got there, all i get are silly online 'join my mafia wars' requests. Was it really worth it?

I can't find any friends I used to know - perhaps i'm more tech-savvy than them and when i saw a 'campaign' to 'stop using facebook' , I kinda understood where they were coming from.

Is it just me? or is it Facebook? I'm kinda hoping I'm not the only one having these problems (let alone the time to 'correspond' with mafia playing people that in the business sense might not be the best target audience) but with so many on there, I suspect I am.

Or am I just being brave enough to admit it when i'm defeated by common technology? Building a website no problem - making a fan page - mission impossible.

I'd welcome input from other brave souls - you're not alone.
Jonathan

Personalised Photo Gifts, Jigsaws, Mugs, Mousemats, T-Shirts etc. from Fabulous Photo Gifts
Jonathan Crouch | Facebook ( i think its the url of our fanpage ).

[AdamW]

Apparently you need to be on there.. (says me with my 11 fans!). I don't particularly like it myself and I'm very bad (sorry Nikki) at keeping it up to date with content.

[fabulous_photo_gifts]

Hi Adam

Cheers for the input. Is the issue just time then? Heaven knows there's precious little of it to go around with your own business.

Here's a question then - would you rather work on your search engine listing position and blog or facebook - which do you think would bring you the most orders?

Jonathan.

[AdamW]

Hmmm.. you could argue that working on Facebook is working on your search engine position ... relevant content, links back to you site.. all good link juice. I'm the same with blogs now I think about it. Start with the best of intentions and then it seems to fall by the wayside.

My issues is time and not giving enough credit to the good that facebooking/blogging can do and thinking it's a bad use of said time.

[Emma]

I wont go near it it's horrible.

[AdamW]

Originally Posted by Emma

I wont go near it it's horrible.

UK Business Labs - Business Networking Forum | Facebook

[Mark]

Yup, I run that side of things. Emma can't stand the ol' FB!

[NikkiPilkington]

They do change things around a lot, and it's not always obvious how to get things done (eg feed blogs in etc) but there are alot of great tutorials around, so the info is out there.

The time thing I can't help with I'm afraid - it's one of those catch 22 situations I think. Either you have the time to do it or the money to pay someone to do it. If you have neither the time to do it yourself or the money (or the WILLINGNESS to spend the money) on someone else doing it then you're stuck.

I do believe Facebook is good for business (but I of course would) and have gained business and sourced supliers on there. I've also impulse bought quite a few things (especially for Baby O) as a result of seeing their Facebook fan pages, as has Shaun.

[B_Cal]

Jonathan,

What I do is very niche, I am involved in aviation, principally photography and online airline pilot recruitment.

I have a Facebook fan page - 43 members ( BTW you need 25 to get your own "unique" URL so mine is now AV8Services | Facebook )

It has proved useful - I have one photographic assignment off the back of it - not aviation related, but they liked the quality of the images, so a bonus that was not expected.

Perhaps you should give it a try - but set yourself some realistic goals and limits of how much time and effort you are going to spend and see if it's more effective than your other marketing activities.

Roy

[AdamW]

I've just spent some time on a custom landing page for non fans. Nothing spectacular but it has some company info, links to the sites, pages I'm a fan of. Spent about half an hour playing this morning so not the biggest amount of time spent. Perhaps if you break it down into small chunks like that and add bits over time that's a way to do it?

I don't believe what I've done this morning will result directly in more sales but it might encourage people to become a fan and then I have an audience through wall updates, discussions and the like.

[fabulous_photo_gifts]

Thanks guys - some good suggestions there....

Jonathan.

fabphotogifts (fabphotogifts) on Twitter

[lauralhampton]

Does Google still count Facebook links for SEO purposes? Is it a quality link?

I am personally still a fan of Facebook. No, the user experience and interface are not ideal, and there are a lot of things which are just too complicated for me to care about.

But with that said, there are still things which I find myself defending Facebook on. For example, a client of mine once said he thought of Facebook as " for the young'uns, not suitable for business". Now to me, cutting out an entire marketing avenue on the basis that it is aimed at young people is counterproductive.

All marketing should come from your research of your end user. If your end user uses Facebook, then that's where you should be speaking to them. The same if they use Twitter or LinkedIn. Or perhaps they're not online at all, but that's something for you to find out.

Marketing shouldn't be done on the basis of what we do or don't like - it should come from what the best ways are of talking to and engaging with our target audience.

[jonnop]

Jonathan

It looks like you've set up another personal profile at Jonathan Crouch | Facebook and not a Page (previously called Fan Page).

A Page gives lots of features and possible customisations that you can benefit from and you won't be bombarded with mafia and Farmville types - no content appears automatically on your Page wall. Fans have to post manually so it's likely to be business related because a) they are fans b) they are directly on your business page.

With a Page you can:

Create a custom landing page as AdamW has done above
Customise other tabs with images promoting special offers etc
Customise tabs to take bookings for events
Create polls
Send Updates to all fans
Share your page with your personal friends
Invite your personal friends on when you set page up
Get stats on visits and visitors

None of the above is possible with a personal profile.

Give me a shout if you need any further advice...or encouragement :-) If you need examples of small businesses who have benefited from their page let me know. A well known example of a big company is Starbucks free pastry deal last year in the States. They used Twitter too but it was announced last week that this single campaign generated an extra 1 million visitors to their coffee shops.

[jonnop]

Jonathan

I see that on the Facebook or Twitter thread you are asking for instructions on setting up a page.

If you go to my site you'll find a slide deck I used in a workshop last week which contains info on setting up Facebook and Twitter in an optimal way to grow your business. It will only be there for a few more days but if you'd like me to email it please let me know.

[Pimlico]

Originally Posted by jonnop

It looks like you've set up another personal profile at Jonathan Crouch | Facebook and not a Page (previously called Fan Page).

I thought that got you deleted and banned?