Facebook Offering Businesses $500 to Monitor Their Phone Calls

I just received an email from Facebook offering one of my social media clients a $500 advertising coupon if he agrees to participate in Facebook’s Call Tracking Study.

The goal of the month-long study is “to understand how many phone calls local businesses receive as a result of their Facebook Page.”

What facebook wants my client to do is replace the phone number on their Facebook fanpage with the special Facebook issued tracking number. Calls to the number will still be routed to my client’s business. Facebook claims they are just “monitoring usage”. According to their website, “Facebook will primarily log the number of phone calls made from the special number on your page. We will not record or listen to your calls.”

Unfortunately the study is only open to a small group of businesses who have been invited to participate. No information was given as to what the criteria were for selecting my client’s business.

You can learn more about Facebook’s Call Tracking Study on their website.

Would you route your business phone calls through facebook and let them monitor them? I guess it depends on how many calls you receive from your facebook page. Maybe you should conduct a research study to find out.

Social Media vs Your Website

I found an interesting article tonight about the rising popularity of social media as compared with traditional websites. According to the Wall Street Journal, some large companies such as Starbucks and Coca-Cola receive up to 20 times as much traffic to their facebook pages as to their corporate websites.

I knew companies were increasingly utilizing social media websites such as facebook and twitter to connect with customers. I had no idea that in some cases these social media sites were outperforming these companies corporate websites… and to such an extent. I suppose it depends on the product, brand or service. In Starbucks case for example, what would be a compelling reason to visit the Starbucks corporate website? Compare this with the company’s facebook page. 600 million users, many of them presumably Starbucks customers, are already on facebook’s site. If Starbucks wants to connect with those users, they need to be there too.

The article goes on to point out the benefits to businesses of each method of online marketing, social media and your own website.

Benefits of Social Media

1. Inherently interactive.
2. Where people are spending time.
3. Easy to acquire users / fans.
4. Virality.

Benefits of Your Own Website

1. Control the design.
2. Own the data.
3. Targeting and personalization.
4. Reach all your audience.

Does your company have a facebook fan page? If you would like one, check out my web design company, Power Play Marketing and our social media marketing packages.

Here is a link to the complete article on bnet.com, Is It Time to Shut Down Your Website?

What is Facebook Advertising?

With the growing popularity of Facebook it was just a matter of time before people started using the site to advertise and market their business.  In the past people had to invest in an expensive website if they wanted a strong online presence.

These days, Fcebook advertising provides a way to reach your target market more effectively.  But what is Facebook advertising and how does it work?

A Way to Connect with Customers

As one of the fastest social networking sites today, Facebook is capable of connecting millions of customers and businesses around the world.  Facebook advertising allows companies to directly target those consumers who may be interested in their products.

Facebook provides an “Advertising” link where you can learn about strategies to reach specific customers and maximize your returns.  You will learn how to make ads that are effective.

Creating a Facebook fan page will help build a strong relationship with target customers.  A fan page humanizes you and your business.  Social marketing is now being used to reach out to more and more consumers and implement your marketing plan more effectively.  Best of all, social marketing is a way of presenting your business as a friend and not as a faceless company.

Marketing Strategies on Facebook

Advertising on Facebook involves creating a fan page.  You need to think of something that will catch the interest of your customers.  People usually seek information, so you should post links and useful articles on your wall.  Present yourself as an expert on topics related to your business.  By offering useful and interesting information, prospective customers will be encouraged to check out your business on a regular basis.

One big reason why Facebook advertising through a fan page is effective is that you get the chance to interact with customers and provide information about your business. You can personalize your message with photos and images.  A fan page will also help you attract new prospects.

Facebook advertising is a personal relationship.  Thus, you should make sure to fill in your profile information completely so that customers will feel that they really know you.  And when customers leave comments or ask questions, make sure you respond quickly.

Monitor the effectiveness of your marketing ideas and try to improve your marketing efforts.  Connecting your fan page with a social media page is a good start.  A thorough understanding of what Facebook advertising is and how you can use it to make your business grow is essential in social media marketing.

Brizzly Review: A Better Social Media Reader

People’s desire to stay connected is one reason why sites such as Twitter and Facebook are so popular.  One common characteristic people share is they want that connectivity to be as simple as possible.  This is where Brizzly comes in.  Brizzly is a Twitter and Facebook client that provides “a simple way to experience the social web”.

A web-based social reader, Brizzly is laid out in a way that just makes sense; it has a very simple interface and the site itself runs smoothly and seamlessly.  Once you create an account, it’s easy to find your way around the site.  There’s even a “Getting Started” video and help section to answer most of your questions. Brizzly’s usability is not an accident. Brizzly was created by some of the same people who built Google Reader.

Here are some of Brizzly’s great features:

• Twitter: Send and receive direct messages. Your direct messages are presented in a threaded conversation like format right on your main page. You can even have multiple message threads going at once. When you receive a message, you can view it or choose the “shh” option to ignore it and pull it up later.
• Twitter: View images in tweets as opposed to links.
• Twitter: Monitor up to five Twitter accounts.
• Twitter: Create groups from your Twitter followers.  Right now, you can only have 5, but Brizzly promises more in the future.
• Twitter: Support for newly introduced Twitter “Lists”.
• Twitter: The Mute feature allows you to hide a user’s updates until you decide you want to see them again.
• Twitter: The “Trends and News” feature provides an explanation as to why terms are trending on Twitter.
• Twitter: Follow and unfollow Tweeters, reply to a Tweet, repost a Tweet and save drafts.
• Twitter: Search Twitter or find people to follow. You can also save your searches.
• Facebook: Update your status, wall posts and comments.
• Short URLs are shown in their full form on Brizzly.

Currently in closed beta, Brizzly is open to users by invitation only.  You can request an invite on the Brizzly homepage or ask a friend who already has an account. Another way to “get in” is to do a Twitter search for “Brizzly invitation”.

The addition of Facebook support is a huge step forward in Brizzly’s development. No longer simply just a Twitter Reader, Brizzly is now a Social Media Reader providing a simple, more streamlined way to monitor these two leading sites. I highly suggest you check it out. Brizzly’s fantastic features will greatly enhance your social media experience.

What are some of your favorite social media applications?

Facebook to Offer Custom URLs

Facebook recently announced they will soon allow users to choose a username for their account. More significant is the fact that Facebook will begin using your username in your profile page URL. This essentially allows you to create a custom URL for your Facebook profile page.

A message posted on Facebook explains, “Starting at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Saturday, June 13, you’ll be able to choose a username on a first-come, first-serve basis for your profile and the Facebook Pages that you administer by visiting www.facebook.com/username/.”

The reason for the change is to “make it easier for people to find and connect with you.”

Currently Facebook uses a randomly assigned id number for profile page URLs. In my case, my profile page URL is:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=692946276

Now, my Facebook profile URL can look like this
http://www.facebook.com/jeffklein or http://www.facebook.com/jeff.klein

Custom URLs are already supported by sites such as Twitter, delicious, and MySpace so this move by Facebook is not unexpected. That said, Facebook is the largest social networking site and this move represents a significant opportunity from a personal branding standpoint. I strongly recommend you claim your username on June 13th when the new prorgam opens up.

You can learn more on the Facebook blog.

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