Posts Tagged ‘Facebook’

Social networking tools that combine location with a status update have been around for a few years. Among them, Gowalla and Foursquare have gained some traction among the uber-connected. Both of these tools broadcast “this is where I am right now” to other users in some way, shape or form. Collectively, such systems are called “location based services” (LBS). Twitter also recently announced support for location-based tweets, prompting some analysts to predict the demise of the aforementioned tools. But if Twitter was going to kill them, Facebook will for sure.

Ad Age reported today that Facebook is getting ready to release location-based status updates. But the reason I am writing about this is not to report another Goliath-kills-David story. It is because both Gowalla and Foursquare employed a marketing strategy which is effective, but risky. And now they face the business end of that risk, so to speak. They both focused their marketing efforts on digital hipsters, in particular choosing the super-cool SXSW conference as a launching pad and battleground for the attention of social mavens. The strategy worked, and both reported significant adoption in 2009 and growth in 2010.

The risk of this strategy? Hipsters are fickle. Being hip is about knowing what’s next, not doing what your neighbors do. Sometimes, hipsters can skyrocket a product or brand into the mainstream, as when Corona beer went from super-cool to mainstream import. But if a big, well-known brand copies a hip product before it goes mainstream, all you are left with is a bunch of hipsters who are eager to turn their backs on you and get on to the next new thing.

Will all of my friends who spend time on Facebook switch to Foursquare or Gowalla for location-based services? I don’t think so, and according to Ad Age, big brand marketers don’t think so either. Will Foursquare and Gowalla’s current users bring mainstream users into those services? Nope. That’s not what hipsters do.

Viral marketing news and other viral happenings in the Denver Metro and Boulder area.

Un-Affiliated in Colorado – People all over were talking about Amazon’s move to cut off their affiliates in the State of Colorado, in protest against state law HB10-1183. The law obliges online retailers to collect Colorado sales tax for goods sold in the state, or make consumers aware that they owe the tax. Within the state, opinions were divided and heated. I myself have gotten in to a few arguments on the subject. Carol Hedges, of the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute, wrote a piece on Huffington Post describing the debate. What is odd about Amazon’s move is that it is directed against affiliates, who are unaffected by the law. Clearly the intent is to get people fired up, without any significant risk to Amazon revenue. Since many bloggers and internet cognoscenti are also Amazon affiliates, cutting them off has proven to be a very effective tactic.

It’s In Your Hands – There is one topic everyone can agree on: periOperative Registered Nurses should know how to wash their hands. This was the message behind a video contest put on by the Denver-based Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN), with the winner to be announced at this week’s AORN Congress in Denver. Sadly, I could not find any Colorado entrants in the contest, but in any case it would have been embarrassing to see them lose to this remarkable entry from Billings, Montana:

The contest is quirky and goofy, but a great way to spread a message on a budget. The rest of the entrants can be found here.

Friended a Ghost Lately? – I’m not sure how I ended up there, but I came across this on the Nachos of Doom blog. Apparently, the Stanley Hotel is pulling out the social-media stops with regards to promoting their paranormal history. Their Facebook Page is abuzz with would-be ghost hunters, and hotel staff actively engage in the discussions. Here’s a little sample from their Facebook Wall:

This is a clever way to capitalize on a colorful past, and create awareness about a beautiful hotel in a beautiful setting.

Snow at First Sight – Unfortunately, I think this one falls short. With the best of intentions, the Colorado Board of Tourism staged a contest called Snow at First Sight. The winners are finishing up their prize this month, which was an all-expenses-paid trip to Colorado for three full months of skiing, snowmobiling and carousing around the state. To participate, contest entrants had to submit a video explaining how they had never even seen snow, and why they deserved to win the trip. There is a web site dedicated to the promotion, a Facebook Fan Page. And the winners have been tweeting away. But considering all of the rigmarole, not very many people are paying attention. One reason may be that it’s hard (impossible?) to find said Facebook Page and Twitter feed from the Snow at First Sight web site. Rule one for getting followed is to make yourself easy to follow. But I think the bigger reason is that it just isn’t all that interesting to watch people play in the snow for three months. I will never forget being with a friend from Costa Rica when he saw snow for the first time. It was great to vicariously experience the wonder of snow. But that was entertaining for an hour or so. Most of the media value of this contest expired shortly after it began.

Why I Am Not a Zamboni Driver – Coloradan Kenneth Waesche got his 15 minutes of viral fame this week when he snapped this photo of a Zamboni fallen through the ice, with a “Caution Thin Ice!” sign in the foreground. The photo got Dugg, Farked, Tweeted and everything else. Kudos to Waesche for lining up the perfect shot.

The Librarian’s Revenge – And last but not least, it’s time to scour your shelves and make sure you haven’t forgotten to return any books or movies to the library. A Colorado teenager was arrested because of an overdue DVD he had failed to return to the Littleton Public Library. The Consumerist asks “Is there a difference between not returning a library DVD and stealing one from a video store?” Well, yes there is, because one isn’t stealing. And if my video store puts out a warrant for my arrest for not returning a movie, I’m switching to Netflix.

This is a weekly update, please comment if there are topics or items I have missed.

This is the second in my series of posts describing the steps involved in adding a business to the Top 10 Free Places to List a Business. In this post, I will describe the process of adding a Facebook Fan Page for my friend Kelton’s business, QUICK-BEND design. Note that I say Fan Page, but Facebook mostly says “Page” without the “Fan” – they used to say “Fan Page”, but I guess they found it too limiting. There’s no difference between the two, but I find it confusing to just say Facebook Page, so stick with the old naming.

To add a page, you have to be logged in to a Facebook account to add a page. Then go to the Create a Page page. You can create a page from any account, and unlike the Google Local Business Center, more than one account can have administrative access to a Fan Page.

From the Create a Page page, I selected “Local” and the category “Other Business”. I also selected “Do not make Page publicly visible at this time.” – I figured I’d let Kelton decide when he wants to make it public.

Believe it or not, that’s it. I could have stopped there and make the page live, but of course it’s nice to put up something for people to look at if they visit, so I added photos from the QUICK-BEND design web site. To keep things simple, I created photo folders to match the categories on QUICK-BEND. It may seem unnecessary to duplicate all of the photos, but I don’t think so. People are very familiar with Facebook photo navigation, and frankly I find the WordPress navigation on the QUICK-BEND site a little tedious. Case in point: I’d been to the QUICK-BEND site a number of times, but had no idea how talented and prolific an artist Kelton is:

Tip: if you are uploading a bunch of photos at once, you can select the option “Edit Album” after the photos have been uploaded. This will allow you to add captions to all of the photos at once, which saves a lot of time.

The other important things to do are:

• Upload a profile photo – you can do this by clicking on the place where the profile photo goes.
• Add a web site URL and location information – you can do this by clicking on the “Info” tab, then “Edit”
• Add a description – this is just below the profile photo, click on the pencil icon

The whole process would have taken 15-20 minutes tops, save for the fact that I had to go to Kelton’s web site and save all of the photos to my computer before I could upload them. That and adding captions to the photos took a little longer. The thing I like most about Facebook Fan Pages for businesses is that they are a very unobtrusive way to let people know of recent news and upcoming events. Much better than email in my opinion. And the Facebook environment encourages users to share content and see what their friends are sharing.

Here is the finished page, if you’d like to check it out and become a fan.

And a couple of other posts highlighting cool things businesses are doing on their Fan Pages:
Einstein Bros + Facebook: Good Bagels Make Good Friends
Titus Cycles Tattoo Contest

Before the web, the vast majority of consumers found local business by opening up the yellow pages and searching by category. This made it easy for businesses to ensure that they could be found. Buy a yellow pages listing and your job was pretty much done. While consumers are increasingly looking for businesses online, there is no comparable authoritative source for local business information on the web. Consumers look to a variety of channels to find businesses, which makes the job of getting found a bit more difficult. I have compiled a list of what I view as the 10 most important sites on which to list (for US businesses), with the important qualification that doing so is free in all cases. I looked at a variety of factors, including overall traffic, domain authority, share of local search and depth of listing content in compiling the list.

All of these sites also have paid advertising options, but first you should take advantage of what they have to offer for free. Note that in most cases, you will need to be able to verify a phone number and/or a physical address to add your listing. I have included traffic figures for each site, using Compete.com January data. I have also noted cases where web site links are nofollowed, with an explanation of what that means at the bottom of this post.

1. Google Local Business Center

By adding your business to the Google Local Business Center, you show up on Google Maps. As I’ve mentioned before, this is one of the most important things a local business can do to get found on the web. Here are a few reasons why:

• It is the most popular mapping service on the web, period.
• Google Maps results show up first on Google.com for many local searches.
• Google Maps is the default local search app on the iPhone (for now) and of course Google’s Android phone.

Google Maps is currently at 182 million visits per month. To add your listing: Google Local Business Center
My post describing adding a Google business listing

2. Facebook Fan Page

Apart from being the second most visited site on the internet behind Google, 1.5 million businesses have created fan pages on the network, and 20 million people become fans of pages every day (source). Facebook is a long way from being where consumers search for businesses, but it has quickly become the most likely place for consumers to connect with local businesses online. According to Compete, Facebook received almost 3 billion visits in January, but little of this constitutes local business search traffic. Web site links nofollowed. To create a page you must be logged in to your personal account, then go here: www.facebook.com/pages/create.php
My post describing adding a Facebook Fan Page

3. Yelp

The review site Yelp is now the most trafficked site focused on local business search. Given its emphasis on social content and interaction, Yelp tends to do better than other directory sites when it comes to attracting younger, more social users. Currently at 50 million visits per month. To add your listing: Yelp signup page

4. Citysearch

Citysearch.com has been holding steady for a number of years now in terms of on-site traffic, but they have been growing their network of distribution through syndication and the recently announced CityGrid blows their distribution opportunity wide-open. Currently at 34 million visits per month. Web site links nofollowed. To add your listing: add business – note that you must be logged in to a personal Citysearch account to see this page.

5. Yellowpages.com/YP.com

AT&T owned Yellowpages.com rebranded as YP.com, and it’s not your parents yellow pages any more. Under pressure from the likes of Google and Yelp, YP.com has a fresh look and more social content and features. And they are beta testing a new social-local search site called Buzz.com. They also distribute listings to a number of syndication partners. Currently at 28 million visits per month. Web site links nofollowed. Claim your listing.

6. Bing Local

Microsoft has long struggled behind Google and Yahoo! in the world of web search, but the tides have turned of late. Since Microsoft launched Bing.com last year, they have steadily been gaining search share. And recent regulatory approval in Europe clears the way for a long planned partnership between Microsoft and Yahoo. As a result of this partnership, Bing will replace Yahoo’s own search engine on Yahoo properties. Bing currently accounts for a relatively small portion of local search, but expect that portion to grow. To add your listing: Local Listing Center

7. Yahoo! Local

As with many things Yahoo!, Yahoo! Local is on the way down. But they still provide a very popular service, so worth making sure you are listed there. Currently at 12 million visits per month. Web site links nofollowed. To add your listing: Yahoo! Local add a business page

8. LinkedIn

LinkedIn isn’t exactly a place where people go to look for local businesses, but it does offer rich business listing functionality, and the domain carries quite a bit of authority. LinkedIn has also been adding many useful features for businesses, such as the ability to announce promotions, share articles and blogs, and list open jobs. Currently at 63 million visits per month, but very little of this is local search traffic. Web site links nofollowed. Add a company.

9. Superpages.com

Superpages also went through a significant redesign recently, but doesn’t seem to be keeping up with Yellowpages.com or the others. Their traffic figures indicate same, with a fairly consistent downward trend. Nonetheless, they get 9 million local search visits a month, so deserve to be on this list. Web site links nofollowed.  Get your free listing now.

10. Local.com

Local.com is another directory site, less well-known, but with a great domain name and considerable traffic. Local.com has an extensive syndication network, but is primarily focused on promoting paid listings. Currently at 14 million visits per month. Add your listing.

There are many benefits to getting your business listed on other web sites. Four important ones are:

• Links – links pointing to a web site are major factor in how that site ranks in search engines. I would say the most important factor, but linking is a complex and nuanced topic. Links are not all created equal. Where a link comes from is important. For example, a link from the home pages of nytimes.com is worth a lot more than a link on a page buried deep within a blog like this one. And some web sites put a “nofollow” attribute on links. This attribute is a way of telling search engines not to follow nor associate value with a link. However, there is still some SEO value in a nofollowed link, in particular because user behavior is also a factor in Google ranking. And Matt Cutts of Google explains more about the value of nofollowed links here.
• Web site traffic – this one is kind of obvious, but your listing will include a link to your web site, which will result in more traffic. Many consumers like to visit a web site before visiting a business. If yours isn’t listed, you lose out.
• In-store traffic – as mentioned at the beginning of this post, consumers are using the internet more, and print yellow pages less.  According to one study, print now accounts for less than a third of local business search. Listing your business on the web is now the best way to get people to walk in to or call your business.
• Placerank – PlaceRank is a measure Google uses to understand location-based relevancy. It is not very well understood, but as location is increasingly becoming an integral part of search, expect optimizing for PlaceRank to become an important part of local business SEO. The short version is that businesses that are strongly associated with well-ranked places will benefit. SEO expert Ash Nallawalla has an excellent post explaining PlaceRank in detail.

Now that I have compiled this list, I am going to go through the process of adding a business to each of these sites. Look for posts in the coming weeks as I describe that experience.