Many people over 25 get onto facebook after being pestered by younger family members. (I certainly was). It can be very daunting at first glance.
Members of your family photographed on holiday and/or dressed in silly clothes with comments added by people you have never heard of – some of which can look very dodgy indeed.

So how can this apparent jumble of oddballs and misfits be any use what so ever to almost any business?

Well, the thing to remember is that oddballs and misfits are everywhere these days, walk down the road or to the train station and you will see variety of different shapes and sizes of people. Any marketer worth their salt wouldn’t view everyone of these as a prospect in the real world and neither should you on facebook.

The second thing to keep in mind is that facebook doesn’t come with a training manual or instructions guide. As with so many things these days, people are just expected to “get on with it” And without any sort of online training often just means copying what other people do. With regards to promoting a business on facebook, unfortunately, this generally means link dropping.

Someone starts a group based on an interest(It’s a little known secret that it is extremely hard to start an online forum) and invites their friends to join. Friends join, and because there isn’t a community already and because they don’t know what to say or have never been coached in how to start a conversation, they just say

“Hi, we are ABC widget makers and if you need replacement widgets, visit our online store”

Then 1 of 2 different things is likely to happen

The first probable thing is that no one is ever likely to click that link.

Why?

Most people hate being sold to. Plus they are never going to buy widgets (or any other service from someone they don’t know and have never met before)

Next up is that anybody who does add a reply will just add something like.

“Hi, Great link”

And that’s a bit like saying to someone

“Hi, great shoes” – but they can never say why…

But there is another way

It takes time and effort – sorry to say that you can’t get everything for free these days.

It’s called networking – actually finding out what help people need and helping them – for free. Ignoring the link droppers (sorry spammers) and looking to meet the sort of people that you would look for in real life. Yes you might need to spend some time and “kiss a few ugly sisters” as you go along but your business will benefit in the long run.

You will meet lots of new people in different parts of the country (and world) who you never would if you had never made the effort.