Facebook®: It’s Not a Website

Over the past few weeks, I worked on developing a web contest.  The client had asked for something that would drive visitor returns and would address some specific prospects he was trying to sell as advertisers.

We built the pages, incorporating the ads submitted by the advertisers who had bought in to the contest.  I called the local ad manager and asked for the links, where each ad needed to point.  When I got it back, I called again and said that I needed the actual website URLs, not the advertisers’ Facebook pages.

“Those where I put Facebook addresses don’t have websites.  They just use Facebook.”

I had heard of this but no one I’ve been doing work for exists with Facebook as their door to the world.  So all of you who have companies or businesses relying on Facebook, stop it!  I can’t be more clear than that.  Just stop it.

The Internet does provide a door to your business.  It’s a great one.  It’s one that should

• Be welcoming to prospects
• Tell visitors what you do or what you make
• Allow you to offer multiple screens of information, promotion and user feedback
   

Bottom line is that you want to invite people in, show them around, tell them what you do and show them how you and your products can help them.  Your business is unique so you want to have the freedom and flexibility to tell your story your way.

Facebook isn’t the place for that.

• You’re stuffed into their format.  The layout is the same for everyone, you have little control of placement on or design of a page
• You have no real branding – Facebook is their brand.  Proof?  “Your” URL will end in facebook.com.
• Load times can be unforgiveable on Facebook
• Feedback is great but it shouldn’t be the focal point of your site.  Hateful consumers can post some pretty nasty comments.  I’m a proponent of entertaining those comments and dealing with them on line but to put them front and center defeats the purpose of your site.
• Adding a back room for sales is difficult.  Yet just about any web developer has an ecommerce bolt-on that would work with a website.
• You are at their mercy regarding actual content
• Linking to other pages or other sites is almost as difficult as the sales bolt-on.  What if you have 5 products.  You want to develop pages or arenas around each product where people can link from your home/front page to whichever one they want to find out more about.  Not gonna happen in Facebook.
• Visitors will be distracted by Facebook items including the “People Also Like” where competitors’ messages can appear.  C’mon!  If that doesn’t convince you, what will?  Maybe the text ad that runs right below that promoting competitive stores?

So you have the opportunity to stand at your virtual front door and greet prospects as they approach.  You can decide what you’re wearing, what’s in the window, what offers might be posted, and where the shopper can go once he or she has entered.  And you want to turn that over to a third party?  One who could not care less about your business?  

The Internet does provide a door to your business.  Facebook ain’t it.

Turning Tech into a Profit Center

“Doggone it, every time I turn around, you’re asking for more money.  A new tube, a replacement headset.  An HD to SD converter.  What the heck is that, anyway.”

 

That’s the GM or owner when the station’s having technical problems.  Yeah, the tech side is definitely looked at as a “loss” center rather than one for profits.

 

So how do you turn that around?

 

I’ve touched on this before but it’s becoming more important every day as broadcasters scrape the sides of the bowl for more revenue.

 

Well, first, in the course of daily operation, show how you’re saving money.  Let management know.  It may take a little of your own time but put together a periodic (weekly?) status report.  In it you can list where you are on various projects.  As a part of that, how are you saving money on them?

 

“X equipment has three broken fahnestock clips.  Checked with manufacturer.  $2,000 each, minimum of 5.  Found at scientificdirectonline.com at 10 for $1.00.  Ordered.  Expected arrival date 12/10/15.”

 

“Saved $600 cost of new CD player for production room by cannibalizing two non-working units from storage.”

 

“Found reliable ‘cloud’ FTP server provider which will cut storage costs by $60 per month.”

 

Keep going. Don’t forget to list projects which are stalled…and give reasons.  But that’s not what this post is about.  What you’ve done is help management understand how you’re trying to save money.  Now you need to go one step further and show how you can help the company make money.

 

 The low hanging fruit:  

 

What services can the station offer that management doesn’t know about?  

 

• A company that provides free dialup to listen to station streams?  There are some and at least one has provisions for a :10 preroll that the station can sell – in addition to the in-program blllboards and spots
  

   
• The possibility of leasing tower space to cellular or other business services 
  

   
•  Rental of a subcarrier or even leasing of an HD3 channel 
  

   
• Others that may be specific to your station(s) 

When you present them, try to attach some value to them.  You can pretty-easily determine the value of tower space by checking the web and calling around.  For prerolls, you may have an idea of how many people may use it but you can always assume one based on listening – if you have an AQH of 5000 and you can add 100 listening on the phone, what’s the value ‘round the clock.  Then what’s the value of the preroll?

 

Button it up in a one-sheet.  That’s right.  One page.  No more.  Tell them what it is, what it does and what you think it could generate in revenue.  Any cost involved?  Don’t leave that out.

 

After you’ve picked the low-hanging fruit, what else can generate revenue?   

Think outside your own station box and see where you can generate some dollars.  Then put together those one-sheets and sell ‘em.  You start looking more like a profit center.  Just as important, you show you’re part of the team, working to move the entire business forward.

The NOT Customer Service

Online commerce – ecommerce – call it what you want…it’s great, isn’t it?  Don’t you wish a few more companies actually understood it?

 

For all you great firms who are proud of your online store (or have been told by your IT and marketing folks that you should be proud of it), I once again invite you to buy something from your site.  Oh, and when you do, use your online chat.  Yeah.  Do that.  Pour two large glasses of liquid, one of water and one of your favorite alcoholic beverage.  You’ll need the former because you’ll get pretty thirsty during the long and arduous task of extracting information from your online chat folks.  The latter?  Well, figure it out.  When you realize how poorly your company – YOUR BRAND – interacts with your clientele, you’ll down the whole thing.

 

I’ve been part of some really interesting exchanges in online sales chats. Most recently, when I questioned why a product hadn’t been delivered as promised and was, in fact, two weeks late, I was told, “Sorry, we don’t actually carry that.  It is in our catalog but is drop shipped from the manufacturer.  They may have a problem or be out of the item temporarily.”

 

My smartass response was, “…and that affects me how?”  I went on to ask why I didn’t at least receive an email telling me about the delay.  It was a response like, “sorry, we can’t do that.”

 

Can’t, won’t, don’t actually carry, not ours…isn’t that fantastic?  

 

I went on to tell the chatter that it had been 4 years since I had ordered from them; that it took me that long to get up the nerve to try again after they had totally screwed up the last order.  Then I added that I’d think about them again in another four years, maybe.  Didn’t matter.  Didn’t affect them, not that I expected that it would.

 

I asked a couple more questions; neither was met with an acceptable answer.  I also asked about canceling the order.  The chatter again had no answer for the chatee.  Instead, she (I assume, it was a female name) asked, “Is there anything else I can help you with today?”

 

Again, the smartass kicked in and I responded with, “Else?  You haven’t helped me with anything yet.  You can’t tell me why the product is two weeks late, you can’t tell me when it will be delivered…you don’t even know if there are any in stock.  And you can’t even help me cancel the order.  So what’s with ‘else’?”  Then my usual angry signoff of.  Seeya.” [click]

 

So, once again, take the time to buy something from yourself.  That sugar-baked ham or teeth-whitener, or seatcovers.  Whatever.  Use your online chat and see what you have - or don't have - working for you.  But, please…no drunken dials to me about what you found.