Guest Post: Author Leland Harden, Digital Engagement
April 14, 2009
Facebook Can Make Your Local Shop Rock!
I recently reconnected with an old friend on Facebook, like many of you have, I’m sure. As we went through the process of catching one another up on things, I learned that she had a shop in her city and was just trying to get a website up, start blogging, etc., to publicize events at her shop. Since she knew that I had just released “Digital Engagement,” she started asking me for advice.
I encouraged her to consider setting up a Facebook page using the Pages utility, and invite friends to ‘fan’ the page. My reasoning was that since what she needed was to get the word out to lots of people, and Facebook already had lots of people, she should start there. This progressed with her starting to ask about advertising on Facebook, and us jointly developing a targeting strategy using Facebook Ads. Since there is so much discussion around how small local retailers can use the web, with varying reports of its effectiveness, I thought I’d share her response with you: “Just wanted to follow up and give you an update on the success of the Third Friday event and the Facebook marketing I did. It was awesome! …had about 50 people in and sales were through the roof. Facebook got me over 78,000 impressions and 25 click throughs for $21. Wow!! I have a feeling this won’t last for long so I have placed another ad for my craft classes. I noticed an ad for American Airlines today, the secret is getting out! Thanks again for your help, I truly appreciate it. I never would have put a page together if you hadn’t suggested it. I have my networking business group meeting at the store in a couple of weeks and I am going to have a few copies of your book there for purchase. I think every one in business right now needs to use this wonderful asset!”
It’s nice to see a plan come together, to help a friend, and to see how effective social network marketing can be for a small local retailer.
Engage!
Thanks to Leland Harden, author of Digital Engagement, for writing this up for the Abilene Startups Blog. Be sure to pick up his book on Amazon, or grab a book from him personally if you can catch him at his Hardin-Simmons University office.
