Friday 14 August 2009

Should Facebook be used for business?


At Virtual Blue Bird, we love Facebook. Please don’t get us wrong, we know that Facebook is a temperamental beast. It’s protected by a large number of unwritten rules, with extremely lengthy response times and a power to block any account for a long period of time without an explanation. Yes, we are fully aware of those risks. However, the benefits that you get from exploiting this social networking tool are enormous.

Facebook is a lot like a mobile phone. Some people use it more actively, some check it every once in a while, but the benchmark fact is – everyone has an account. With Facebook providing free access to such a large audience, establishing a presence there is inevitable for most businesses.

In order to maximise your returns from Facebook usage, the most important thing to remember is that your account needs to be continuously nurtured over time. With the strict rules in place, your enthusiastic decision to build a presence quickly will lead to your account being blocked. And should you suddenly decide to message everyone about your new product – you will also find your account to be blocked. What’s more, and probably even more importantly, your customers will see you as much of a spammer just as Facebook will. Hence, the weighted solution is building your Facebook presence continually over time.

At Virtual Blue Bird we spend an hour a day updating our client’s accounts, adding friends, building up groups and creating interesting content gradually. Once a new product launches, we run a physical or a virtual party, to which all new (and happy) customers are invited. That’s usually the point, at which the conversion rates shoot up to around 2 out of 3.

Facebook requires constant attention and a good deal of patience, but use it wisely and you will see real benefits to your business that it has to offer!

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