Not long ago I started hitting the "Like" button to businesses I related to that started popping up on Facebook. I've hit "Like" on my favorite sports sites, teams, team members, high school, undergrad school, politicians, companies, friends start up companies, etc. Wait a minute, there are over 20 "Group Likes" in my Facebook! How did this number get so big?
How did we get ourselves into such a long list of different pages? As consumers and fans of a company, organization or celebrities we try to get as much information about them as possible. We live in a society where we somehow feel connected to someone or something as long as they are our friend on Facebook or any other source of online social network. We love getting constant updates on what is going on and I feel Facebook has turned us into a somewhat gossipy society. Not only do we get this gossipy awesomeness straight into our emails and computers, it comes straight into our Blackberry's and Iphone's the moment a status is updated or a mass message comes out.
The question come to mind, "Is this beneficial to business"? To answer this questions we must see how we react as consumers to the online interactions companies send our way via online social media. In a personal example I have had my favorite sports team send me a constant flow of information about the team and how it's doing in the season. Not only will it send me information on the players but will have special competitions on the Facebook wall where trivia questions are asked and the first one to answer the questions gets a prize. What kind of a prize can you win for participating? Signed shirts, caps, jerseys, game tickets or even cash prizes. Believe me, when you see free stuff like this being handed out for posting how many points a player scored the night before is very appealing. What has this particular company achieved by doing this on Facebook? They have me logging on every day to their website, staying current with their product, purchasing their product (in this case game tickets because I am so pumped to see my team play again as soon as possible) and participating in their online marketing campaign.
Another example is start up companies using online social media to get the name out of their companies and what they sell. This is a great tool for them because it is free to create an online social account and to start getting a fan base. A friend of mine recently established a business and sells high quality leather products like belts, wallets and other accessories. He had a decent customer basis but was looking to expand the reach of his products to other consumers outside of the people who happened to walk by his store in downtown. What he did was open up a Facebook account for his store and started posting pictures of his entire product line. He created a photo album that was an online catalog to product line. What did he have to invest? One week of taking pictures in the afternoon of his product line, assigning each product an item code, and posting the pictures online. The benefits? Some of his customers will now call him for a product line and buy in bulk. He will have the order ready for the customer at the store for pick up and business just became really convenient for his customer and him. His customer base has also expanded because of the ease of his customers referring him to other "Friends" on Facebook and other online social tools.
This form of online marketing definitively works and is selling products. But like in Online Social Media the Key to Small Business Success? ,there is a price to pay for this kind of marketing. It isn't totally free. Like my Finance professor says, "Nothing is free in this world". In the case of my friend he has to take time apart from running his physical store to keep up with online orders and requests, in the case of my favorite sports team it is obvious they have hired a full time staff member to run the teams online social life and marketing activities. Truly a beneficial tool but an expensive one as well.
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