Your local media company can help small business owners succeed on Facebook
According to a 2012 survey by Manta, the largest online community for local business owners, an overwhelming majority (90%) of small and mid-size business (SMB) owners devote time to social media, and Facebook in particular. However, 58% of the SMB owners surveyed said that they struggled to find value in using Facebook to promote their business or didn’t have a page at all. This number indicates that while most SMB owners are on social media, many could benefit from social networking support.
Furthermore, small businesses plan to invest more in social media. So why not leverage your internal staff to help educate SMB owners on what they can do with their social media marketing?
Providing an Education Along with Your Digital Agency Services
Now is the time to start providing digital agency services within your organization.
At the same time, you should consider educating SMB owners on Facebook, including how Edgerank – the algorithm that determines what shows up in who’s News Feed – works and how they can go about engaging with consumers to actually make their Facebook marketing efforts more effective.
Offering an educational seminar about social media strategy to local SMB owners can be a way for your company to:
Become a true partner and marketing resource.
Deepen relationships with existing clients.
Get in the door with new clients who normally wouldn’t purchase traditional media.
At such a seminar, you can also showcase your digital agency offerings and seek to convert SMB owners to advertisers with your company even as you educate them about social strategy. Explain that you could:
Manage and update Facebook pages for SMB owners.
Run promotions on the SMB owner’s Facebook page (rather than on your page) since they do not know where to begin, don’t have the time to manage these promotions, or aren’t sure how to find a vendor to do so.
Provide design and graphics services, for use in promotions or content marketing.
One local radio station in a top market generated $50,000 from a single SMB seminar! At the end of the seminar, the SMB owners were offered their choice of three different discounted packages that would allow them to have a Facebook contest run on their page if they signed up within a certain number of days. These were not sponsorship packages – instead, they were agency-model packages wherein the radio station would set up and administer an independent contest on the advertiser’s Facebook page as if they were an agency.
Planning Your SMB Social Media Seminar
Identify someone within your organization who is currently managing your social media program and is an engaging presenter. This does not mean the youngest person on staff who happens to have a Facebook Page! This is someone who understands social strategies and has driven proven results on your local media social profiles. Can’t think of anyone? Then now is the time to find that person, and to re-educate your existing staff.
Once you have chosen your presenter, invite clients to a free session where you can teach them some basic social media strategies.
An agenda could be something like:
Stats on current social media platforms and their usage, illustrating why should they care
Basic definition of each social network and how it’s used
How to determine which social network is best for their business
How to attract fans and followers, such as promotions and special offers
How to engage and build relationships using great content and customer service
The optimal way to share that content i.e. how to @ mention and use hashtags on Twitter or how to optimize your posts on Facebook by using an image and a call to action to engage with the post
How to create a basic content calendar
Close this session with a discounted social media package with your company. This could include sponsorship of a Facebook contest on your page, an agency-model Facebook contest on their page, or even a social media consultation & management package if that is the direction your property wants to go.
Has your company previously offered an educational program for SMB owners? We would love to hear about it.
The post Find New Advertiser Leads with a Facebook Seminar for SMB Owners appeared first on Second Street Lab.