360DigitalInfluence

This Facebook Friday is dedicated to the Little Guy: the one-man communications team, the small business owner, or the intern for a non-profit who just got assigned Facebook (I’ve been there). So here’s to you, Little Guy, and because you make Facebook awesome, here are six easy and (almost) free tips for your “little” Facebook page. And you Big Guys can learn a thing or two as well.

1. Promote In-Venue- For most local businesses, your customers only know you offline so it’s the perfect place to start your efforts. Post a flyer, print some stickers, make a poster… just let your customers know that you’ve got a Facebook page and let them know where to find it. Local businesses like Primal Surf Shop in New Jersey can keep update local and also keep in touch with tourists and summer visitors who might only be in once or twice a year but who are spreading the word about the shop to their networks through interactions with the page.
2. Put Facebook Forward Online- Whether or not you’re planning to promote in-venue make sure you grab the low-hanging fruit of promoting Facebook through your online presences. Add the URL into your e-mail signature, place a link on your personal Facebook page or local chamber of commerce site, and add a Fan Box to your own website so visitors can become a fan right there. The Fan Box is also an easy way to update a static website and bring a little social into it, like this site from West Des Moines Leadership Academy.
3. Network- Small businesses are great at networking and you can do this on Facebook too. Local DC restaurant Marvin does this well; they often host local artists and musicians and not only create Facebook events on their own page but also post and link to the artists’ page and Facebook content such as photos or poetry posts. Non-profits can do this too; on National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Know Stroke page they list other stroke-awareness pages and partners in their Favorite Pages and Links section.
4. Buy Targeted Advertising- You can purchase Facebook ads from amounts of $5-$500 with any credit card or Pay Pal. Facebook ads can target by age, gender, hometown, current city, relationship status or interests. One ad that caught my eye recently was from Bird Rock Coffee Roasters, a coffee shop in my hometown of La Jolla, California. I’m now a fan and even though I’m miles away I check the page frequently and comment on photos from the owner, Chuck, and his trips to coffee farms all over the world.
5. Go Mobile- Not having a desktop at work is no longer an excuse to slack on Facebook. Curbside Cupcakes is a mobile cupcake shop that uses Facebook and Twitter to let fans know when they’ll be in the neighborhood so mobile updating is perfect, it’s also a great solution for those on the sales floor during business hours who want to keep customers coming in from 9-5. Facebook offers four options for updating on the go: e-mail, text message, mobile browser, or iPhone application. Get more information here http://tinyurl.com/FacebookPagesMobile
6. Be Patient- This final and critical tip come from Charles Nelson, owner of Sprinkles Cupcakes in Los Angeles. He told the New York Times last year that part of his tip was, “Be patient. Technology is about the network effect. It takes time for those connections to build.”

Do you have other tips and tricks that you’ve seen or have a local business you love to follow online? Share below and good luck, Little Guy.

Update: Facebook also posted about local businesses and tips for using Facebook (#kismet)