Main Street businesses relying solely on Facebook for advertisin

    • 1373 posts
    March 30, 2015 11:11 AM PDT

    RSC member Kimmy Henglefelt of Mitchell, SD, would like to get your input on a situation she's facing. 

    She writes:

    Could you do a general question to everyone about Facebook?  We have a melting Main Street; it isn't because it's a bad main street, there are plenty of worthy businesses BUT 95% of them DO NOT advertise regularly or at all!!!  They use Facebook as a sole advertising tool.

    I have tried to explain to them, YES use Facebook but it should NOT be your means of advertising. I have told them to use their resources, the paper, the radio stations, Facebook, etc.  Is there a way I can explain this to them again and make them understand? I didn't mention a majority of these owners are 30ish...

    • 17 posts
    April 1, 2015 8:16 AM PDT

    any suggestions???

    • 6 posts
    April 10, 2015 6:46 AM PDT

    The main comment I make to my advertisers is a quote I saw a while ago.  I don't remember where, so I'm sorry I can not credit the author, but it said "Broadcast inspires, internet informs."  I remind my clients that radio inspires the audience to search for their specific business rather than doing a general search.  The more times we can put the name of their business in the heads of our listeners, the better the odds are that our listeners will think of their business first, be it on Facebook or any other internet site.

    I hope this helps you as it surely has made an impact for my success.

    • 17 posts
    April 10, 2015 7:23 AM PDT

    thank you,  great words of advice.  I will try it, at this point to try it won't hurt a bit!! 

    • 112 posts
    April 10, 2015 7:40 AM PDT

    First, congratulations on having a thriving Main Street. As a person who has been involved in her local downtown association, I can tell you we would be THRILLED to be in your shoes. On the flip side, as a radio sales rep, I feel your pain. Facebook is both a blessing and a curse. But, you can use it to your advantage. Does your radio station have an active facebook page too? Show them how many more fans are on your radio page as on theirs. As broadcasters, we have the upper hand in that we can use the airwaves to drive our listeners to our page and use ticket giveaways, etc to boost our numbers. Lets remember that a facebook page or any website is just a pinhead dot in a sea of millions until "something" drives the customer to visit it. A small business can share their page and offer discounts all they want, but will never grow beyond their core customer base until they market outside the facebook box. And lets not forget that even though it seems like "everyone" is on facebook, the reality is that there are still plenty of potential customers that are either not on the internet or are using other platforms. The truth is that radio still reaches 91% of Americans EVERY WEEK!! Is their facebook page reaching 9 out of 10 people in your coverage area? I think not.

    • 17 posts
    April 10, 2015 8:05 AM PDT

    I have sent out different information to a variety of the businesses explaining how small the reach is for facebook is but in my opinion I think it has a lot to do with age and the expense.  I am also on a downtown group which I have tried to give my 2 cents about advertising which falls on deaf ears.  I worked at the local newspaper for 12 years and now the radio for 3 years, its almost like I don't have any experience to back my words. The businesses that have been on our Main Street for years are good advertisers and know what they should and need to do because it has worked for them and they have "built" their business with out facebook.

    • 170 posts
    April 10, 2015 8:36 AM PDT

    Small businesses relying on facebook are going to be surprised with what they cannot load onto their pages going forward.  Rule changes at facebook:  facebok has recognized that businesses are using facebook pages in lieu of buying facebook access thru facebook so they are now going to monetize commercial activities on facebook, monitoring facebook to delete or refuse posting of certain types of activities small businesses rely on such as the term ;'sale', '00% off', 'today only', et al.  Your clients don't want to believe you?  Show your downtown businesses some of these articles:

    http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-tools/14-ways-new-fa...

    http://www.wsj.com/articles/new-facebook-rules-will-sting-entrepren...

    http://www.techtimes.com/articles/21102/20141130/facebook-is-killin...

    We also run anti-facebook airtime -  see attached.

    The other thing we point out to businesses -  our downtown businesses also think facebook is great because it's 'free' -   we respond 'free?...really?' -  because they spend hours taking pictures and posting, updating, coming up with ideas to get people to 'like' their page. To get around the new facebook rules they are going to spend even more time rephrasing things to get around the commercial facebook censorship.  What is their time worth to reach only those who like your page?  No way is facebook free.

    Research has again and again shown, as Kathy Williams above alludes to, that you're only talking to people on facebook who already do business with you, are personal friends who already know about you and may or may not shop at your business or family.  Facebook can generate additional sales from those people, but will not generate new traffic to your business.  And knowing about you on facebook has never equated to coming in and buying from you. Radio talks to tens of thousands of people... facebook talks to your 'likes'.

    Apparently downtown businesses are inherently cheap!  So try a co-op  -  if you have a downtown business association start with that. Otherwise, go door to door downtown.  Start with an activity or event. Put a package together for, e.g.,   summer sidewalk sale days in June.  $75 a business, get 10 businesses = $750 schedule... 15 businesses = $1125 schedule.  The more that sign up, the more airtime you can run.  Everyone who signs on get a liner -  so the commerical opens with 'Summer Sidewalk Sale Days are Thursday, friday Saturday!' with other details, the middle is 2-3 client liners like ' save up to 75% on kids clothing at the Kids Nest on Main Street... jackets are buy one, get one 50% off!'.  Then the close is again the detail on the event. An example we are doing right now is attached for a Chamber expo for which they budgeted nada for marketing.  The local newspaper actually does this format -  put the event info center page in color and sell $50-$100 business card-sized ads all around the border.  This approach is successful for us with all the fairs and small town festivals around us. The key is not spending a ton of time on this -  you canvas with the flyer, if they say yes then you put together what they want to say right there and move on. 

    The business people you approach often see this as you supporting their shop-with-us mentality by trying to work with them in this way, by trying to make advertising their cherished events affordably.  It has generated more active buying for us from businesses individually and from business districts.  Over the years we have found that trying to lecture these business groups on what they probably should be doing reflects on us negatively, makes us appear contentious and hard to work with.  The co-op approach is a problem-solving approach that will make you and your stations look more helpful, less critical of the groups you are trying to work with.

    • 13 posts
    April 10, 2015 8:54 AM PDT

    There's an opportunity for local radio stations to take leadership in driving traffic to Main Street.  We took a jingle template to the town of Cobourg, ON...which allowed every local Main Street area business to buy radio cheaply by uniting in a catchy campaign that piggybacks two or three downtown advertisers into 30 or 60 secs. On the heels of Kathy's comment:  the jingle creates the "inspire" and your local advertisers supply the "inform." In tiny Cobourg's case this approach delivered $19,000 of new revenue to the small local station in its initial launch, and has continued to drive traffic (and radio sales) for years of ongoing seasonal advertising.

    Even if your local Downtown Business Association lacks the will or budget to purchase a campaign such as this, your station should still offer it--or something similar--to individual Main Street businesses.

    What we did for Cobourg is attached below, and something like this would only cost about $500 to customize to other cities and towns in regions outside of Southern Ontario.

    • 170 posts
    April 10, 2015 8:59 AM PDT

    Small businesses relying on facebok are going to be surprised with what they cannot load onto their pages going forward.  Rule changes at facebook:  they have realized that businesses are using facebook pages in lieu of buying facebook access thru facebook so they are monetizing commercial activities on facebook, monitoring facebook to delete or refuse posting of certain types of activities small businesses rely on such as the term ;'sale', '00% off', 'today only', et al.  They don't want to believe you?  Show your downtown businesses some of these articles:

    http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-tools/14-ways-new-facebook-betrays-small-business/

    http://www.wsj.com/articles/new-facebook-rules-will-sting-entrepreneurs-1417133694

    http://www.techtimes.com/articles/21102/20141130/facebook-is-killing-small-business-entrepreneurs-with-new-policy-rule.htm

    We also run anti-facebook airtime -  see attached.

    The other thing we point out to businesses -  our downtown businesses also think facebook is great because it's 'free' -   we respond 'free?...really?' -  because they spend hours taking pictures and posting, updating, coming up with ideas to get people to 'like' their page. To get around the new facebook rules they are going to spend even more time rephrasing things to get around the commercial facebook censorship.  What is their time worth to reach only those who like your page?  No way is facebook free.

    Research has again and again shown, as Kathy Williams above alludes to, that you're only talking to people on facebook who already do business with you, are personal friends who already know about you and may or may not shop at your business or family.  Facebook can generate additional sales from those people, but will not generate new traffic to your business.  And knowing about you on facebook has never equated to coming in and buying from you. Radio talks to tens of thousands of people... facebook talks to your 'likes'.

    Apparently downtown businesses are inherently cheap!  So try a co-op  -  if you have a downtown business association start with that. Otherwise, go door to door downtown.  Start with an activity or event. Put a package together for, e.g.,   summer sidewalk sale days in June.  $75 a business, get 10 businesses = $750 schedule... 15 businesses = $1125 schedule.  The more that sign up, the more airtime you can run.  Everyone who signs on get a liner -  so the commerical opens with 'Summer Sidewalk Sale Days are Thursday, friday Saturday!' with other details, the middle is 2-3 client liners like ' save up to 75% on kids clothing at the Kids Nest on Main Street... jackets are buy one, get one 50% off!'.  Then the close is again the detail on the event. An example we are doing right now is attached for a Chamber expo for which they budgeted nada for marketing.  The local newspaper actually does this format -  put the event info center page in color and sell $50-$100 business card-sized ads all around the border.  This approach is successful for us with all the fairs and small town festivals around us. The key is not spending a ton of time on this -  you canvas with the flyer, if they say yes then you put together what they want to say right there and move on.  Eventually, you may be able to get them to do an imaging or branding schedule ongoing.  first  -  they have to believe!

    • 17 posts
    April 10, 2015 9:20 AM PDT

    Thank you everyone this is a HUGE help!!! I appreciate this a ton!!!!

    • 993 posts
    April 10, 2015 9:33 AM PDT

    Kimmy,

    If you have not yet watched Bob Hoffman's engaging presentation, "The Golden Age of Bullshit" - I highly recommend you watch it.  He demolishes the notion that social media have replaced traditional media with lots of current illustrations.

    Also, Roy H. Williams has dealt with this issue from time to time in his Monday Morning Memo.  Here's an example.

    I learned about using Facebook many years ago from someone using it to drive traffic to his upscale French restaurant.  He could occasionally fill up an evening with a special Facebook offer to his friends.  But to build awareness and steady traffic, he relied on word-of-mouth, which included a regular presence on radio - the biggest mouth in town.

    • 455 posts
    April 10, 2015 12:55 PM PDT

    The good thing about Facebook is you can reach the whole world. The bad thing about Facebook is you're competing against the whole world.

    Likes are not new customers.

    • 17 posts
    April 10, 2015 1:04 PM PDT

    Very good point! I like to tell my clients " you don't know what you don't know" so lets tell them!!!

    • 17 posts
    April 22, 2015 4:40 AM PDT

    Something that I find helpful is to put it in easy to understand terms. Radio introduces new customers, Facebook interacts with people who already know who you are.

    We never bag Facebook advertising. It's great, it's cheap, it's direct. But we as a radio station introduce new customers for you to interact with via this medium.   

    We, as a radio station have actually invited our clients to our presentations on "how to use facebook effectively". By giving the clients all the info on how to use Facebook to its maximum potential, they don't see us as a threat but a help in growing their business and in turn trust and respect is gained. I could dig up this presentation and forward it to you if you like.

    • 455 posts
    April 22, 2015 7:36 AM PDT

    I would love to see this presentation. You can send to [email protected] . Thanks in advance.

    • 455 posts
    April 22, 2015 7:51 AM PDT

    Owen is on target. You want to be that resource that your clients cannot do without concerning all things relating to advertising. 

    Likes on Facebook do not equal sales. Your most loyal customers will follow you on Facebook and take advantage of special offers when they likely would be willing to pay full price.

    Ask the customer how many likes they have on Facebook. Then, tell them how many your station has (should be no comparison). Explain that the difference is you use the power of radio to drive traffic to your FB page. If you've used FB for special events or promotions, talk about the results there. Again, you are sharing the story about how much more effective FB will be with radio than by itself. 

    • 6 posts
    April 24, 2015 9:28 PM PDT

    Many of the people that use your main streets products and services also work in factories, offices, and shops that do not allow them to use facebook during their 8 to 12 hour work day. They DO however, allow thier employees to listen to the radio! Think of this.Would they rather wait for individuals to find them one at a time on facebook, or have their business name spoken to a captive audience daily? It seems the better option is pretty obvious.... Good Luck! 

    • 6 posts
    April 24, 2015 9:29 PM PDT

    I would also love to see that presentation! please send it to me at [email protected]. Thank you!

    • 17 posts
    April 25, 2015 2:33 AM PDT

    Sure Jack,

    I will email it through to you next week. Currently out of the office. Cheers

    • 17 posts
    April 25, 2015 2:33 AM PDT

    No worries Douglas,

    I will get it to you soon. Cheers

    • 17 posts
    April 27, 2015 2:55 AM PDT

    See attached flyer that we handed out during the presentation. The actual presentation file is too large to upload sorry.

    • 1373 posts
    July 30, 2015 11:52 PM PDT

    Phil Bernstein just wrote an excellent article on this topic:  How "Find Us On Facebook" Can Kill Sales.

    • 17 posts
    July 31, 2015 6:05 AM PDT

    I would love that, thank you!!!

    • 17 posts
    July 31, 2015 6:05 AM PDT