WE ARE. We’ve started to receive direct inquiries about our services AND referrals from people we know through Facebook. It’s not huge by any means, but my sense is that we’re at the beginning of an important change.

It started over the summer. I’d been on Facebook for about six months. I’m embarrassed to say that I only had three “Facebook Friends” and they were all employees who, no doubt, “friended” me because I’m the boss. I’m just a few years too old to be in the early adopter group for Facebook and most of the other social network sites. In fact, Al Gore was just putting the finishing touches on his new invention “The Internet” when I graduated college.

So I had a severe Facebook inferiority complex. Then something astonishing happened. All of a sudden I started talking to, let’s call them mature, business contacts. They were joining Facebook. And not just a few…nearly every lunch appointment or networking event I went to, Facebook was the new fad. I started getting and sending friend requests to people I knew (that’s how you add someone to your network on Facebook). I also noticed more businesses and business groups represented on Facebook.

A trend is forming, and I think it’s here to stay. So I thought I’d share with you my top 5 reasons for incorporating Facebook into your business marketing:

#5. It’s the best way to reach millenials and Gen-Xer’s.

#4. You can quickly (in minutes) create a company or development specific page with video, events and a blog (called the ‘wall’).

#3. Prospects can identify themselves to you by becoming “fans” of your company or development. Now you can focus your message on people who want to hear it.

#2. You can learn about your customers through their Facebook pages. You’ll better understand what motivates them to buy.

#1. You can bring YOUR personality into your marketing. Your customers crave this connection with you. Facebook is a VERY easy way to “pull back the curtain” and let them see your human side.

If you’re not on Facebook, follow my easy 8 step process to get started today.

1. Go to www.facebook.com and sign-up (I know it’s obvious…but do it).

2. Fill-in some details about yourself in your personal profile. In my profile, you’ll see that I live in Tallahassee, FL, my birthday is June 12th, I’m married, I went to the University of Florida (GO GATORS!) and I went to Episcopal High School in Jacksonville. You’ll also see some of the groups I belong to. This serves two purposes. It makes it easy for people I’ve known to find me. In fact, “the girl next door” from my old neighborhood found me by searching for people who went to our high school. The second purpose, is that it tells my Facebook “Friends” about my background…stuff that they may not have known. That makes me more accessible and authentic to them.

3. Search for people you know by name or email address. You can even upload your contact list and Facebook will do the searching for you. Once you’ve found some familiar faces, send them a “Friend Request”. They’ll be notified of your request and asked to confirm you as a friend (this helps keep away bogus friends). When they confirm you, you’ll be able to see their Facebook page and they will see yours.

4. Setup a “Group” for your company. You can make your group open to anyone or by invitation only. You can post videos on your group page…a great way to add a personal touch to your marketing. You can also have a group discussion board on your page. This will allow you to have a conversation with your customers.

5. Create an “Event” for your next development launch of sales promotion. Invite your Facebook friends and your company’s fans. This is a great, free way to get to people that are likely to be interested in your offering.

6. Post tasteful, personal comments on your wall. Give status updates when you’re doing something interesting. Recently, I was in San Francisco on a business trip. One evening I had a dinner cruise in San Francisco Bay and posted a status update saying I was cruising past Alcatraz. When I got back home, four people asked about my trip at the next networking event I attended. It was a great conversation starter.

7. Send me a friend request (search for sgordon@1globalmind.com) and I’ll introduce you around.

8. Join the GlobalMind group.

People want to do business with people, not stuffy corporations. Facebook gives you a simple way to show some of your unique personality to your prospects and customers. Go ahead, give them what they want.

In a recent article about Dunkin’ Donuts versus Starbucks I read an interesting piece of information. The customers who were in Dunkin’ Donuts told the reporter the reason they stick with Dunkin Donuts is because they are from the North East and Dunkin’ Donuts is what they are used to. The same is true for West Coast residents they tend to turn to Starbucks. How can this information help your business?

If you can pinpoint potential customers and market to them more efficiently, you will see better returns on your marketing investment. A tool that can help business owners better utilize their marketing dollars is GIS (Geographic Information Systems). In fact, you may have used Google Earth - a basic version of GIS technology.

GIS tools, such as Google Earth, use location information to help users make decisions. So, how could Google Earth help you understand your customer better and make more money?

First, map all your current customers to see where they are located. Next, use demographic data to find what households have roots in the North East. Data can be obtained from moving stats, relocation stats from State or County, or internaly collected data. Using color coding, the more intense red has a higher concentration of the target market, it is easy to identify high concentrations of the target market. So based on the high concentration of red and existing cutomers east of I-95, you can target a direct mail campaign to the area you identify.

Why would using Google Earth help direct mail? Couldn’t I just guess the area and send postards to those homes, sorta like trial and error? You could, but what if you guess wrong, how much would the mailings cost? A friend of mine decided to send postcard mailers to all the households within a 10 mile radius of her store.

The cost was an astounding $5,800 for the postcard and postage. I am not sure about you, but as a manager in a small business, $5,800 is quite a bit of money for one direct mail compaign. The large dollar amount also increases the break-even point, meaning more sales to cover the cost of the direct mail.

Instead, I offered to map her existing customer’s versus the county population. Then we tied in the female population under 30 years old. The ending result was the above illustration (blue and red). The darker red areas identify areas with higher concentrations of females under 30. Once we download the information and saw the total households, the total households were roughly 2,000. Instead of her direct mail costs totaling $5,800, the costs dropped to $1,160.

Now to turn on my marketing hat for a minute, direct mail typically has a return of less than 1%, which means of the 10,000 mailed, only 100 will respond. On the other hand, more targeted direct mail can have up to a 6% return or even higher. With a 6% return, on 2,000 households you could expect to see 120 people at the store. So, with 8,000 fewer households receiving the mailer we still managed to get a higher response! Also, since the mailer is targeted to the store’s target market, the customers tend to have a higher average sale per transaction.

You are probably thinking, that is all well and good for a store but my business is not based on a store front, how would GIS benefit me? GIS has been used by many different businesses for over 20 years. Companies such as McDonald’s and Wal-mart have been using the technology to count customer cars and determine new store locations. Insurance companies use GIS to measure their risk and market to areas with lower risk. A land developer uses the information to find their next project site. Land conservation groups use GIS to rank the land they want to buy. Shipping companies use GIS to route where their vehicles will travel each day. The possibilities are endless. If you have a question on location, GIS can help you answer it.

Taking information off a spreadsheet and putting it in a picture gives business owners the ability to make decisions within minutes instead of hours.

Checkout how you can implement Google Earth in your business: http://1globalmind.com/2008/02/13/google_earth_for_business/ 

Once you try it, post your results here. Have fun!