The Like Economy How Businesses Make Money With Facebook

by Carter, Brian

• ISBN13: 9780789751362
• ISBN10: 0789751364
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2013-08-07
• Publisher: Que Publishing

Summary

The #1 Plan for Profiting from Facebook: Now Updated with New Tools, Techniques, & Strategies!

Brian Carter’s complete, step-by-step Facebook sales and marketing plan has helped thousands of companies supercharge their online sales and profits. Now, he’s completely updated it to reflect new Facebook features and tools, share all-new examples and experiences, and deliver actionable new insights about Facebook’s users…your customers! Carter focuses on techniques proven to pay off and steers you away from expensive techniques that no longer work. You’ll discover today’s best ways to attract more prospects at lower cost, convert more of them into profitable buyers, repel “brand-bashers,” and attract fans who’ll help you sell. This is a book for doers, not talkers: entrepreneurs and marketers who want results, fast!

• Compare Facebook’s five routes to profit, and choose your best strategies
• Craft a Facebook program that reflects your unique offerings and customers
• Avoid eight key mistakes that kill Facebook profitability
• Continuously optimize your presence to reflect your experience and performance
• Sell the dream: Go beyond benefits to arouse your fans’ desires
• Attract super-affordable, targeted visitors and fans with Facebook ads
• Deepen engagement by applying new insights about Facebook users
• Improve branding, positioning, and customer service along with revenue
• Master 13 proven influence tactics for transforming casual visitors into buyers
• Employ time-tested sales tactics, including testimonials and upselling
• Build a community you can translate into profits
• Create a cost-effective B2B marketing program that works

Author Biography

Brian Carter delivers entertaining, motivational talks on how top-performing organizations can generate more revenue. Brian’s 18 years of business success, plus a background in stand-up comedy, produce presentations that are both entertaining and enlightening for attendees. Brian is the internationally bestselling author of The Like Economy, LinkedIn for Business, and Facebook Marketing. His books have been translated into Spanish, Chinese, and Portuguese. Brian has also written for Salesforce, Marketo, Mashable, The Search Engine Journal, AllFacebook, The Next Web, and The Huffington Post.

He has more than 200,000 online fans, and his content is viewed by more than 8 million times a month. He develops strategies and builds search visibility and social marketing fanbases for companies of all sizes, including well-known entities such as The World Health Organization, Universal Studios, The U.S. Army, Hardee’s, and Carl’s Jr.

Brian has been quoted and profiled by Information Week, ABC News, U.S. News & World Report, Mashable, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and Entrepreneur Magazine, and is a regular presenter for top marketing conferences such as SEOmoz, SMX, Pubcon, The AllFacebook Expo, Socialize, The South Carolina Society of Association Executives, and The American Marketing Association.

Table of Contents

Introduction     1
Chapter 1  The Like Effect: The Power of Positive Marketing     3
Likes Decrease Costs and Increase Profits     4
Likes Increase Sales     5
Likes Give You Control of the Customer Conversation     5
Likes Prove People Are Paying Attention     6
Likes Solidify Loyalty     7
Likes Create Evangelistic Customers     8
There’s No Dislike Button     8
Can You Do Fear-Based Marketing on Facebook?     9
Google “Likes” the Like Button     10
Facebook Is About Passions and Interests     10
How Often Do Facebookers Like Things?     11
Facebook Users Are More Trusting     12
Facebook Groups: Off-the-Charts Positivity     12
Facebook Page Brag Boards     13
Easy Testimonials     14
Emotions on Facebook Are Contagious     14
Gross National Happiness     15

Chapter 2  You Can’t Tell a Facebook by its Cover: The Case for Facebook Marketing     17
Why Facebook Marketing Is So Important     19
   Facebook Is the Biggest Thing Since Google and Might Be Bigger Than Google      19
   The Facebook Ad Platform Is the Most Powerful Marketing Tool in History      21
   Google Dooms You to Price Wars, Whereas Facebook Creates Loyalty and Increases Your Value     21
   Are Facebook Fans the New Email Subscribers?     22
   Facebook Is Heir to the Browsing Empire Yahoo! Lost     22
Myths and Misconceptions About Facebook for Business     23
   Social Media Users Don’t Buy Products     24
   Social Media Users Don’t Buy Soon Enough and the Sales Cycle Is Too Long     28
   Twitter Is the Only Social Media Channel Worth Using?     30
   Facebook Is Just for College Students/Kids?     33
   People Don’t Click On Ads?     35
   Who Harbors These Misconceptions and Why?     36
Some Businesses Profit on Facebook, and Some Don’t     36
   Common Mistakes     37
   Success Stories     37
   Here’s What Facebook Marketing Successes and Failures Do Differently     38
Facebook’s Strengths: Advantages for Your Business     38

Chapter 3  FaceFirst: How Facebook Fits into Your Business and Other Marketing Efforts     41
How Is Social Media Supposedly Changing Business?     42
   Conversation     42
   Transparency, Honesty, and Trust     44
   Availability and Responsiveness     45
   Marketing     46
Evaluating Social Media Experts     47
What Businesses That Profit from Facebook Do     48
   Can Facebook Change Your Business?     48
   How Can Facebook Fit In to Businesses in Different Ways?    48
How Do You Synch Up Your Other Marketing Efforts with Your Facebook Campaigns?     49
   Facebook + Print, Web, and Email     49
   Facebook + Google Marketing     50
   Facebook + PR     51
   Facebook + Email Marketing    51
   Facebook + TV     52
   Facebook for Radio Station Promotion     52

Chapter 4  FaceBucks: Five Ways Businesses Achieve Profits with Facebook     55
How Facebook Advertising Helps All Five Revenue Models     56
   Reaching Potential Buyers     56
   Positive Alignment     57
   Cheap Clicks, Cheap Fans, and Profits    57
Should You Try Facebook Marketing Without Fans First?     58
Five Facebook Revenue Strategies     59
   Strategy #1: Advertising Direct to e-Commerce     59
   Strategy #2: Advertising and Email Marketing     60
   Strategy #3: Fan Marketing for e-Commerce     64
   Strategy #4: Fans for Blogging and Advertising Revenue     66
   Strategy #5: Fans and Affiliate Marketing     68

Chapter 5  How Not to Fall on Your Face: Eight Mistakes That Block Facebook Profitability     71
1. Is Your Business Viable Online? Is Profitability Likely?     72
   The New Online Business     72
   The Successful Online Business Now Testing Facebook Marketing     76
   Figuring Out Facebook Marketing Profitability     77
2. Do You Have the Facts? Are You Looking at Them?     78
3. Are You Making It Easy for Them to Buy?      78
   The 1% Rule: Only 1% Of People Will Do What You Ask Them to Do Online     79
   The Effect of the 1% Rule on Internet Sales Processes     80
4. Are You Making Them Care?     80
   Why Should They Care?     80
   WIIFM?     81
   Incentives     81
Facebook-Specific Landing Pages on Your Website     82
5. Do You Have the Right Fans?     82
6. Are You Reaching Enough of Them?     83
7. Are You Reaching Them Repeatedly?     84
8. Are You Warming Them Up?     85
   Start with Generosity     85
   Warming It Up on the Web     85
   Warming It Up on Facebook     86

Chapter 6  Facing the Facts: How to Continuously Get Better Results with the Five Steps of Optimization     87
How Digital Marketing Is Shifting Marketing Cultures     88
The Five Steps of Optimization     88
Step One: Establish One Clear Goal     92
   Facebook Marketing Goals     92
   Prioritizing Goals and Reconciling Conflicts     93
Step Two: Quantify the Goal with a Key Metric     94
   Balancing Metrics     95
   Estimating the Likelihood of Success     96
   Tracking     96
   Facebook Marketing Metrics     96
Step Three: Look at Where You’re Starting     98
   Resources     98
   Obstacles     98
   Capabilities     100
Step Four: Choose Tactics to Test     100
   Ad Copy Tests     100
   Ad Image Tests     101
   Facebook Post Tests     101
   Testing Post Types     102
   Landing Pages     103
Step Five: Optimize Based on Results     103

Chapter 7  Selling the Dream: Going Beyond Benefits to Arouse Your Fans’ Desire for What You Offer     105
Cure the “Me Me Me” Epidemic     106
   Use Your Customer’s Language     106
   Who Is Your Customer?     107
   Why You Are Never the Best Example of Your Target Customer     109
   Don’t Get Obsessed with Art     109
   Measure Results and Adjust Your Course to Improve     110
   Facebook Is Their Playground, Not Yours     110
Do Pushy Sales Messages Turn People Off?     111
   Facebook Is Like a Conference: How Do You Sell at a Conference?     111
Sales Is a Journey of Four Steps     112
   What Is AIDA?     112
   “Hot Donuts Now”     112
   “I’m on a Horse”     113
   Social Media Selling Is So Romantic     113
   How AIDA Works on Facebook     114
How to “Sell the Dream”     115
   The Desire Phase Is Critical in Fan Marketing     115
   The Features Versus the Benefits     115
   The Benefits Versus the Customer’s Dream     116
   Examples of Selling the Dream     117
   12 Things People Dream About     119
   How to Figure Out Your Customer’s Dream     120
   How to Get Fans Thinking and Talking About the Dream     121

Chapter 8  Putting Your Best Face Forward: Setting Up Your Facebook Page to Get More Fans and Sales     123
Pages, Groups, and Profiles: The Mad, Mad World of Facebook     124
   Other Facebook Opportunities     128
   Can You Market with a Personal Profile?     128
   What’s Better, Pages or Groups?     128
   Understanding Admins for Pages and Groups     130
   How Do Pages and Groups Work Together?     131
   Why Are Facebook Groups So Powerful?     132
   Critical Mistakes to Avoid in Page Setup     133
   What to Put in Your Page’s Cover Photo     133
   How to Get a Vanity URL (Username)     134
Are Custom Tabs Overhyped?     134
   Most People Never See Your Tabs     135
   Why Most People Will Never See Your Tabs     135

Chapter 9  The Face of Advertising: How to Capitalize on the Most Powerful Marketing Tool     137
Why Facebook Advertising Is Critically Important     138
   Comparing Google Search Marketing with Facebook Marketing     139
   How Ready Are They to Buy Now?     139
   Cost of Permission Marketing     139
   Facebook Ads for Different-Sized Businesses     140
   Mistakes and Misconceptions     141
How to Do Facebook Advertising     142
   1. Analyze Your Business and Customers     143
   2. Target Your Audiences     145
   3. Create Your Advertisements     150
   4. Optimizing Your Campaigns and Ads     162
Advertising to Existing Fans     169
How to Be a (Boring) Rock Star for Just $30 per Month     170

Chapter 10  FaceHook: Capturing Qualified Prospects as Fans and Group Members     173
Why Fan Marketing Can Be So Profitable     174
   Paid Media Versus Owned Media on Google     174
   Paid Media Versus Owned Media on Facebook     174
Unwise Ways to Get Fans     176
   The Contest and Giveaway Trap     176
   Buying Fans from Companies That Get Fans for You     177
Marketing 101: Targeting and Return on Investment     177
Wrong Fans? Bad Return on Investment     178
A Few Fan Growth Campaign Case Studies     180
How to Get Low Cost, Targeted Fans     182
   The Best Ad Settings for Affordable Fan Acquisition     183
   Target-Ad Consistency: Tightly Grouping Targets with Image and Message     183
   An Alternative Targeting Approach     184
   No-Brainer Marketing: Simplicity Gets Results     184
   Ad Copy Formulas     185
   Ad Copy Grammar, Punctuation, and Capitalization     185
   How to Choose Images for Fan Acquisition Ads     185
   The Key Metric for Fan Generation and How to Find It     186
Notes on Business-to-Business Fan Acquisition     190
   Business-to-Business Fan Generation Advertising Tips     190

Chapter 11  Talking Till You’re Blue in the Face: How to Get More Likes and Comments     193
   The Surprising Truth About How People Use Facebook     194
   Your Fans See the People and Pages They Interact With     195
   The Average Page’s Posts Are Seen by Less Than 10% of Its Fans     195
   The Mysterious EdgeRank Algorithm     197
   Post Metrics and Benchmarks     198
   Reach     199
   Engaged Users     199
   People Talking About This (PTAT)     199
   Feedback Rate     200
   Reach/Fan Count = Visibility     200
   Feedback Rate’s Effect on Reach     200
   Are Some of Your Fans Unreachable Forever?     201
Dancing on the EdgeRank: Increasing Response  and Visibility     201
   What the Heck Is Web 2.0?     201
   Leading the Community You Create     203
   Facebook Users Are Bored: Entertain Them!     203
   Formulas for Posts     204
   Incorporating Selling the Dream     207
   Learning from Your Previous Posts     209
   Engagement Milestones     210
   Guiding Your Community     211
Balancing Engagement and Selling Types of Posts     212
   Ratio and Frequency     213
   Ideas for Posting     214
   Feedback Rate and Sales Posts     215

Chapter 12  FaceMessage: Achieving Other Corporate Goals on Facebook     217
Nonrevenue-Oriented Facebook Goals     218
   Branding and Positioning     219
   Customer Service     221
   Public Relations     222
   Journalistic Best Practices for Interaction     226

Chapter 13  Face-alytics: Analyzing Your Facebook Results     229
Which Web Analytics Package Should You Use?     230
Google Analytics Overview     231
Taking Analytics with a Grain of Salt     233
   The Untrackables     234
   Uneven Accountability     236
   Last-Click Bias     237
   Inconsistencies and Inaccuracies     237
Tracking Facebook Visitors with Google Analytics     238
   Tracking Visitors from Facebook Posts     240
   Tracking Visitors from Facebook Ads     241
How to Get Advanced Facebook Page Insights     243
   1. How Often Should You Post on Your Facebook Page?     243
   2. What If the Demographics of Your Most Engaged Fans Are Different from Your Average Fan?     244
   3. What Types of Posts and Post Content Get You the Best Feedback Rates? Which Get the Worst?     244
   4. What’s the Best Time to Post to Your Fans?     244
   5. Which Sources Get You Fans Who Will Ultimately Unlike Your Page?     245
   How to Use These Tips to Get Better Results from Your Posts     246
Competitive Intelligence Analytics     246
   Keyword Monitoring and Sentiment Analysis     246
   Content Engagement Analysis     247

Chapter 14  Influence: 13 Tactics for Turning Browsers into Buyers     249
Sales and Influence Tactics for Increased Facebook Profits      250
Applying Influence Principles to Facebook Marketing     251
   Reciprocity     251
   Commitment and Consistency     258
   Social Proof     260
   Liking      261
   Authority     262
   Scarcity     263
Applying Time-Tested Sales Tactics to Facebook Marketing     265
   Discounts     265
   Bonuses     266
   Upsells     266
   Selling the Value     266
   Testimonials     267
   Truth and Consequences     268

Chapter 15  B2B Facebook Marketing     271
Facebook B2B Marketing Success Stories     272
   InfiniGraph: Competitive Social Intelligence     272
   Harrison Agate, Attorney     272
   Marketo: Marketing Automation     273
   Zurvita: Wellness Product Sales Through Independent Consultants     273
Comparing Facebook, Google & LinkedIn for B2B     274
   Allocating B2B Advertising Funds     275
   The Sales Funnel     276
   Beyond Professionalism?     277
Facebook B2B Marketing Tactics     277
   Whitepapers     278
   Infographics     278
   Memes     278
   Think Outside the Box with a Ukulele     278
   Ebooks     279
   Facebook Advertising     279
   Facebook Posts     282
   Conclusion     283

Chapter 16  FaceBusiness: Seven Principles for Success     285
Harness the Power of Positive Marketing     287
Embrace the Entire Sales Funnel     288
Leverage the Facebook Advertising Platform Now     290
Map Out and Optimize Your Revenue Model     291
Know Your Customers Much More Deeply     292
Test, Track, and Optimize Your Marketing     293
Start Fascinating Conversations     294

Index     295