Social media let businesses talk directly with target audiences
When entrepreneur Lily Dawson started her jewelry design business in January 2009, she launched a website and sold her handmade bracelets, necklaces and headbands at local boutique Elly’s Couture.
Now the 24-year-old Columbia native has shifted gears. She gets most of her customers through her free Facebook page, which she updates almost daily to send messages to her 750 followers. But she doesn’t wait for people to “like” her page; Dawson draws in new customers with Facebook advertising, those text ads at the right margin of a user’s home page. In fact, 99 percent of her advertising efforts are on Facebook, which reaches her target audience of 18- to 24-year-old females.
“You are talking directly to your target market because they chose to ‘like’ you,” said Dawson, commenting on how there is no “sifting through large groups of people.”
She said Lily Dawson Designs does “very well with the young, consumer-driven, Facebook-obsessed crowd.” Dawson tracks the numbers through Facebook’s Insight program, which helps her track the success of various promotional efforts. She said she logs into a special Insights page that shows how many people were exposed to the ad, how many clicked on it and the days and times that were most popular.
And there are plenty of other Columbia businesses seeking their share of the Facebook-obsessed demographic. Many are Columbia branches of national chains, such as HuHot Mongolian Grill with 1,501 fans, BestBuy with 80 or Houlihan’s with its 2,832 fans. BestBuy even uses its postings to attract new employees.
Locally owned Café Berlin has 1,900 fans, and Lucy’s Corner Café has 30 fans. Businesses also gain exposure through Facebook’s “check-in” system, where users can tell their friends that they’ve visited a business or place.
For example, Columbia Mall’s Facebook page boasts 1,703 fans but more than 2,100 “check-ins.”
Big local winners among the “likes” are Central Missouri Humane Society, with 3750 fans, and of course Mizzou Football, with nearly 150,000 fans. Also, Shakespeare’s Pizza has more than 27,000 fans, and Flat Branch Pub and Brewing has 5,200.
After many tries at finding the way to communicate with its large membership spread across several locations, Wilson’s Fitness decided to make Facebook part of the mix and wound up with more than 1,200 fans. Wilson’s now uses Facebook to push information out to members, such as when fresh farm produce is available at its Forum location or when former MU basketball star J.T. Tiller led group training at Wilson’s downtown location.
Advertising consultant and MU communication professor Cynthia Frisby, 50, helped build Facebook for Wilson’s as well as two other clients, Déjà Vu and DanceArts studio.
“Facebook seems to be what everyone was doing from a business standpoint,” Frisby said of her introduction a few years ago. Matt Istwan, co-owner of Déjà Vu comedy club, wanted a page, so she created it. At the beginning she said it had close to 1,000 fans; it now has 3,000. “You reach the people that are interested in your business.”
For DanceArts dance studio, Frisby wanted more of a “community feel” to create a conversation with students and their parents.
Frisby is able to update the pages from anywhere at any time, which is a big appeal for her. Other parties close to the business can also update.
But Facebook does have its drawbacks, Frisby said. “You can’t control what people comment or (control) bad language on public pages.” She said someone posted about being angry for getting carded at Déjà Vu, which serves alcohol.
Others have “vented” on Facebook, she said, and aired their complaints about the club. “We don’t want to take it down if it’s valid,” she said, “because people will appreciate how we handle it.”
She said it’s actually helpful for management to respond to a complaint. “It’s not always bad when people see that you leave a comment like that and then management addresses the problem,” she said.
One way to pull users into a more closed effort, which is good for a comedy club that sometimes has racy content, is to create a “group” and not a fan site. For example, this is the same strategy used by a much different business, DeSpain Cayse Dermatology. The medical spa (not a client of Frisby’s) posts updates to its members, who have to be approved by the group’s administrators.
Frisby said she’s also wary that Facebook users who respond to a posted Facebook event don’t feel obligated to attend because the system is so informal. This “can mislead businesses,” she said, and result in overpreparing for promotional events that have a lot of no-shows.
Frisby said Facebook isn’t the one-stop solution for businesses and that all businesses have different goals. “Radio was the best for Wilson’s and getting people to get to the gym,” she said. A mix of radio and TV “made Wilson’s seem like they were advertising everywhere, but they weren’t.”
She said for other retail customers, print ads in free publications such as AdSheet or Internet ads were part of the mix. “It depends on audience, how broad, young or old,” she said.
As social media are a moving target, Frisby is continually looking for new ideas. She wants to try Groupon, the bulk buyer sale effort, or other types of “push” ads, such as emails, Tweets and texts.
But not all companies focused on a young audience are going for Facebook, especially because those older than 25 are the fastest growing segment of Facebook users. Frank Sovich of Marathon Building Environments, a Columbia office design firm, said he thinks Facebook is a “very effective way to reach our friends and an easy way to reach our clients.” He said he likes the fact that Facebook now reaches a wide variety of ages. Sovich and Marathon also use the site to thank their customers; one recent post thanked Taxi Terry, a local transportation firm, for doing business with Marathon.
“We want our friends to be our clients and our clients to be our friends,” Sovich said.
Now the 24-year-old Columbia native has shifted gears. She gets most of her customers through her free Facebook page, which she updates almost daily to send messages to her 750 followers. But she doesn’t wait for people to “like” her page; Dawson draws in new customers with Facebook advertising, those text ads at the right margin of a user’s home page. In fact, 99 percent of her advertising efforts are on Facebook, which reaches her target audience of 18- to 24-year-old females.
“You are talking directly to your target market because they chose to ‘like’ you,” said Dawson, commenting on how there is no “sifting through large groups of people.”
She said Lily Dawson Designs does “very well with the young, consumer-driven, Facebook-obsessed crowd.” Dawson tracks the numbers through Facebook’s Insight program, which helps her track the success of various promotional efforts. She said she logs into a special Insights page that shows how many people were exposed to the ad, how many clicked on it and the days and times that were most popular.
And there are plenty of other Columbia businesses seeking their share of the Facebook-obsessed demographic. Many are Columbia branches of national chains, such as HuHot Mongolian Grill with 1,501 fans, BestBuy with 80 or Houlihan’s with its 2,832 fans. BestBuy even uses its postings to attract new employees.
Locally owned Café Berlin has 1,900 fans, and Lucy’s Corner Café has 30 fans. Businesses also gain exposure through Facebook’s “check-in” system, where users can tell their friends that they’ve visited a business or place.
For example, Columbia Mall’s Facebook page boasts 1,703 fans but more than 2,100 “check-ins.”
Big local winners among the “likes” are Central Missouri Humane Society, with 3750 fans, and of course Mizzou Football, with nearly 150,000 fans. Also, Shakespeare’s Pizza has more than 27,000 fans, and Flat Branch Pub and Brewing has 5,200.
After many tries at finding the way to communicate with its large membership spread across several locations, Wilson’s Fitness decided to make Facebook part of the mix and wound up with more than 1,200 fans. Wilson’s now uses Facebook to push information out to members, such as when fresh farm produce is available at its Forum location or when former MU basketball star J.T. Tiller led group training at Wilson’s downtown location.
Advertising consultant and MU communication professor Cynthia Frisby, 50, helped build Facebook for Wilson’s as well as two other clients, Déjà Vu and DanceArts studio.
“Facebook seems to be what everyone was doing from a business standpoint,” Frisby said of her introduction a few years ago. Matt Istwan, co-owner of Déjà Vu comedy club, wanted a page, so she created it. At the beginning she said it had close to 1,000 fans; it now has 3,000. “You reach the people that are interested in your business.”
For DanceArts dance studio, Frisby wanted more of a “community feel” to create a conversation with students and their parents.
Frisby is able to update the pages from anywhere at any time, which is a big appeal for her. Other parties close to the business can also update.
But Facebook does have its drawbacks, Frisby said. “You can’t control what people comment or (control) bad language on public pages.” She said someone posted about being angry for getting carded at Déjà Vu, which serves alcohol.
Others have “vented” on Facebook, she said, and aired their complaints about the club. “We don’t want to take it down if it’s valid,” she said, “because people will appreciate how we handle it.”
She said it’s actually helpful for management to respond to a complaint. “It’s not always bad when people see that you leave a comment like that and then management addresses the problem,” she said.
One way to pull users into a more closed effort, which is good for a comedy club that sometimes has racy content, is to create a “group” and not a fan site. For example, this is the same strategy used by a much different business, DeSpain Cayse Dermatology. The medical spa (not a client of Frisby’s) posts updates to its members, who have to be approved by the group’s administrators.
Frisby said she’s also wary that Facebook users who respond to a posted Facebook event don’t feel obligated to attend because the system is so informal. This “can mislead businesses,” she said, and result in overpreparing for promotional events that have a lot of no-shows.
Frisby said Facebook isn’t the one-stop solution for businesses and that all businesses have different goals. “Radio was the best for Wilson’s and getting people to get to the gym,” she said. A mix of radio and TV “made Wilson’s seem like they were advertising everywhere, but they weren’t.”
She said for other retail customers, print ads in free publications such as AdSheet or Internet ads were part of the mix. “It depends on audience, how broad, young or old,” she said.
As social media are a moving target, Frisby is continually looking for new ideas. She wants to try Groupon, the bulk buyer sale effort, or other types of “push” ads, such as emails, Tweets and texts.
But not all companies focused on a young audience are going for Facebook, especially because those older than 25 are the fastest growing segment of Facebook users. Frank Sovich of Marathon Building Environments, a Columbia office design firm, said he thinks Facebook is a “very effective way to reach our friends and an easy way to reach our clients.” He said he likes the fact that Facebook now reaches a wide variety of ages. Sovich and Marathon also use the site to thank their customers; one recent post thanked Taxi Terry, a local transportation firm, for doing business with Marathon.
“We want our friends to be our clients and our clients to be our friends,” Sovich said.