Anyone used a website designer for a small business website?

[Mattty]

Chris is absolutely correct about the social networking thing. It's just as essential as your website.

I am very naive on this- can you expand on this a little wizer?

 

[matt]

Chris is absolutely correct about the social networking thing. It's just as essential as your website.

I am very naive on this- can you expand on this a little wizer?

I'm curious too. Are you thinking in terms of viral marketing, Wizer? I can see that it's not a bad thing but wonder who's going to "follow" etc (in terms of actual customers versus those interested in, say, woodworking)?

Note to self - give this more thought...

 

[wizer]

The benefit varies depending on your particular line of business. Social networking get your name about, gives people access to pictures of your work, creates a localised 'buzz'. Social networking is not to replace your traditional online presence, it serves to compliment it. for example, a customer adds your fan page to their profile. All their friends can see that they added you and will 'have a nose'. You may get one or two who add you too because they might be interested in your work. Their friends can then see that they have added you, ad infinitum. You might add pictures of your work or small updates about what your doing and all your 'fans' can see this. Don't get bogged down in the terminology. Just because FB terms your 'friends' as 'fans' doesn't mean your pretentiously putting yourself on a pedestal. It also helps to 'network' with other businessmen, not just in your line of work, but in similar trades. You would be surprised how much people are using these applications. It all helps to get your name around. It's all about exposure. Don't take my word for it, have a google. It's big business, but business that is totally free. It just takes a little effort for you. If you are positive about these services then they will work for you.

For example. Axminster, Chestnut Finishes, Philly Planes, The Wood Whisperer, Matts Basement Workshop, Meantime Design, Lumber Jocks, Turners Retreat, Fine Woorworking, Popular Woodworking, Living Woods, The Contemporist, Brian Boggs, Gary Rogowski, Charles Neil, plus many many more are all on FaceBook, using it for their business.

A few of my friends have 'fan pages' who run gardening, plastering, general building type business. I know some individual 'artisans' using FaceBook as a selling\advertising tool.

It's not just FB. Twitter is massive, LinkedIn is a good business tool, etc, etc

 

[Mattty]

The benefit varies depending on your particular line of business. Social networking get your name about, gives people access to pictures of your work, creates a localised 'buzz'. Social networking is not to replace your traditional online presence, it serves to compliment it. for example, a customer adds your fan page to their profile. All their friends can see that they added you and will 'have a nose'. You may get one or two who add you too because they might be interested in your work. Their friends can then see that they have added you, ad infinitum. You might add pictures of your work or small updates about what your doing and all your 'fans' can see this. Don't get bogged down in the terminology. Just because FB terms your 'friends' as 'fans' doesn't mean your pretentiously putting yourself on a pedestal. It also helps to 'network' with other businessmen, not just in your line of work, but in similar trades. You would be surprised how much people are using these applications. It all helps to get your name around. It's all about exposure. Don't take my word for it, have a google. It's big business, but business that is totally free. It just takes a little effort for you. If you are positive about these services then they will work for you.

For example. Axminster, Chestnut Finishes, Philly Planes, The Wood Whisperer, Matts Basement Workshop, Meantime Design, Lumber Jocks, Turners Retreat, Fine Woorworking, Popular Woodworking, Living Woods, The Contemporist, Brian Boggs, Gary Rogowski, Charles Neil, plus many many more are all on FaceBook, using it for their business.

A few of my friends have 'fan pages' who run gardening, plastering, general building type business. I know some individual 'artisans' using FaceBook as a selling\advertising tool.

It's not just FB. Twitter is massive, LinkedIn is a good business tool, etc, etc

Thanks wizzy. Thats all very interesting. I am a real dinosaur at this stuff.

 

[RogerS]

I see what you're saying, Tom, but still struggle to get my head around how you go about doing this. Are there separate areas in these social networking sites? Reason for asking is that yesterday while listening to the Classic Fm hall of Fame they mentioned that people were talking about a piece of work by Hess ( a truly horrible piece of work IMO) so I went onto Twitter to try and find the thread or whatever it's called. I tried searching for Hess, Hall of Fame without much success. However looking at the various comments that people are making did nothing to dispel my preconceived impression of these SN sites.

The comments that I saw on Twitter plumbed new depths in banality. That was the ones that I could actually read. Many were so obtuse I gave up.

So are there separate areas for 'normal' articulate people?

 

[Mr T]

Hi

Does Matty's avatar give anyone else nightmares?!!!

I recently went to a seminar on social marketing run by Shaa wasmund (she set up a platform on the web for small businesses and entrepreneurs called Smarta ) look at her on Twitter and Facebook to see how someone is really committed to social marketing. I can see that social marketing could be a powerful tool if used right.

Following the seminar I signed up to Twitter, but have not really worked out how to make it work for me, I currently have three followers and one of them is my daughter!

Chris Nomates

PS Smarta site http://www.smarta.com/ Why can I only put a url at the end of a message, if I decide to go back and insert a url in the middle of a messege it forces it to the end?

 

[wizer]

Twitter isn't a forum. It's a live logging system. I don't use it much because I'm not in business and I have no desire to log my every move. I don't think searching on Twitter is very useful unless you are looking for what they call trends. i.e you want to observe what people are saying about specific topic at that specific time. I'm not sure how far you can go back. As I say, there are some people who are using these sites for purely 'social' reasons. But in a way, it's them who you are 'targeting'. I don't see it as viral marketing. But others might. It depends on how you go about it.

Anyone wanting to use this medium, I would suggest you sit and watch how they are used for a few weeks. Understand how other use them. Don't go on there all guns blazing, like a certain router bit company did here not so long ago.

Obviously, forums are another type of these social networking, but probably viewed as old hat by those in the know. As I'm sure you know Roger, having your website in your signature is generating you more website traffic and getting you better google rankings.

 

[Mattty]

Hi

Does Matty's avatar give anyone else nightmares?!!!

:lol: :lol:

 

[OPJ]

I know a guy locally who says setting up his own Facebook page has done great things for his business. Likewise, he's been using Twitter to spread the word of a forthcoming exhibition.

 

[RogerS]

I know a guy locally who says setting up his own Facebook page has done great things for his business. Likewise, he's been using Twitter to spread the word of a forthcoming exhibition.

Do you have his link, Ollie? Be interesting to see what he's done.

 

[Mr T]

Hi Ollie

I'd also be interested in that link.

Chris

 

[BradNaylor]

Et moi.

Brad

 

[Mattty]

What Brad said..
oh and me aswell.

 

[BradNaylor]

Never mind that Matt, you've not replied to my Fire Door thread yet!

 

[Chris Knight]

I reckon you all should just ask Tom(Wizer) to set it up for you - I'm sure his rates are reasonable and I know from having set up quite a few websites/forums and the like myself that it is a pain to keep on top of everything.

 

[duncanh]

To get an idea of how wood companies use Twitter or Facebook you're best off setting up an account on one of those. Once you're on Twitter search for any of the companies that Tom mentioned and choose to follow them.

Once you've done that you'll probably need some sort of Twitter feed checker - I use Echofon installed as an extension in Firefox. As soon as someone I'm following posts an update (tweets) a small window pops up displaying it for 5 seconds or so and then it adds a count to the status bar.
For companies like Axminster and Turners Retreat the updates are mainly about new products or special offers. One alerted me to an offer with Turners Retreat where I got a free set of digital calipers if I became a fan of them on Facebook.

I ignore most of their tweets and they can sometimes be a little excessive sending 4 or 5 out a day just to advertise things for the following weekend, but if things annoy you too much you can always stop following.

 

[OPJ]

Okay, guys.

This first link is for the Facebook page - Charlie's set it up as a "Group" but you could equally do it as a "Page" (to be honest, I'm not entirely sure what the difference is - wizer???). Click here - though, you may need to be registered/signed in to view.

There really isn't much to it and I'd bet it's much easier to set one of these up than it is to build a half-decent website. I assume it works as Tom described earlier; you invite people to 'join' your Group (or 'become a fan of' your Page) and it spreads from there.

That was a Group; this next one is a Page for a forth-coming exhibition - click here.

Nick Gibbs set up a Page for Living Woods magazine.

On Twitter, you can also "follow" the exhibition - here. I know even less about Twitter but, there are nearly double the amount of people following these 'Tweets'.

I hope this helps in some way. If you've all built your own websites then setting this type of thing up really shouldn't be any trouble at all... It's only when you start to get Friend Reguests and people Poking you that it starts to become a bother!

 

[RogerS]

Yeah but how does it bring you in business? I don't see the connection or rationale.

 

[wizer]

Do you understand the concept of social networking in traditional forms Roger? i.e not on the net?

 

[big soft moose]

Do you understand the concept of social networking in traditional forms Roger? i.e not on the net?

its basically the same as word of mouth innit - if a happy customer links your facebook page to theirs then their freinds can see you and are likely to visit yours to check you out , thus may think of you next time they want whatever it is that you do. simples

course it does have a downside if your service is crap , as they can also use face book to say avoid this one like the plague ( I wonder if rutlands have a F/B )

at the end of the day its just people talking to each other, and stripped of the techno babble its not much different to giving customers a biz card or flyer so they can recomend you when they are talking to their mates down the pub, or at coffee mornings or whatever