Facebook – Business Friend or Foe?

Based on a review of over 13 billion web URLs visited by users at businesses in the first quarter of 2010 Managed Security Services company Network Box pronounced Facebook the #1 business traffic generator on the web for that time period. According to their study Facebook generated 6.8% of all traffic from business users.

This same study pegs second place site, Google, with half as many visits with a 3.4% share of business traffic.

When polled about their top IT issues, managers ranked employee use of applications (Farmville anyone?) during work hours as their top concern.

As a small business owner should you be happy, sad, or just ignore the amount of visits your employees might make to Facebook during the workday?

Option #1: Don’t Worry – Be Happy

Any business with a significant focus on customers and who is interested in some portion of that 6.8% of web traffic should pay keen attention to the Facebook trend.

Before you write of Facebook as something your kids waste time playing games on,  recognize that there’s more to Facebook than the popular games like Mafia Wars or Farmville.

Here’s an example of how my favorite vacation spot, The Ridin Hy Ranch, works to leverage Facebook as an additional source of advertising.

The resort has setup their own Facebook Page (free) where their fans (about 800 and growing) post numerous testimonials (pictures of their family having fun at the resort).

What’s this all cost? Nothing.

Sure they could purchase advertising on Facebook targeted at people with young children or a love of horses. But the basic Facebook Page can be started for any business with absolutely no cost.

What does the resort gain ?

Each time a fan of the resort posts photos those pictures also appear in the person’s Facebook account. And all their friends and contacts can view their photos and comments about the fantastic time the person had at the resort.

Do you think Ridin Hy books a few vacations based on these free testimonials?

I bet they do.

Our last visit there was a $1,600 trip. If there are 10 people over the course of a year who visit the resort based on their Facebook friend’s recommendation – that’s an extra $16,000 revenue for the resort.

Or is it more?

What happens when those 10 friends go to the resort. Have a great time – come home – and tell 10 more friends each?

Suddenly instead of only 10 people knowing how fun the resort is – there are 10 x 10 = 100. And it can quickly snowball from there.

Do you see the power that a Facebook word of mouth campaign might have on a business? How about for your business? Could you create a Facebook Page and encourage your customers to become active contributors by posting feedback, photos, reviews and other information?

Option #2: Be Sad

In some cases your business may not benefit from a Facebook Page. Companies in the professional services or business to business have a less clear benefit than those companies who deal extensively with the general public.

If you’ve noticed (or suspect)  that your staff is spending too much time chatting on Facebook you can easily use a free  online service called OpenDNS to regulate the sites your network users can visit.

The implementation of OpenDNS is a little technical – but their site has some good “how to” information so that in about an hour you could update your network so that social sites such as Facebook and MySpace are blocked to every computer on your network.

The OpenDNS service works by replacing your computers standard DNS (Domain Name System) — which is like a roadmap that guides your computer to specific web site addresses — with a modified DNS service.

This customized DNS has controls that allow you to specify which locations your users can – or cannot – visit. You’re able to set specific times of day for the access as well.

Option #3: Just Ignore Facebook Because You Don’t Understand It

If you need any proof of the vast mindshare that Facebook has gathered just take a trip to your local college.

On several occasions while visiting a college to speak to students I’ve walked by the computer lab.

Just by a quick analysis of what’s displayed on student’s computer screen’s I’d guesstimate that it’s 85% Facebook activity.

The future business owners, employees – and more importantly customers – are all dedicated users of Facebook.

To ignore the vast user traffic (remember studies show 6.8% of business activity is going to Facebook – double that of the Google search engine) is to overlook a potentially lucrative new market to connect and market to your current and future customers.

How Can You Start?

The simplest way to get started on Facebook is by creating a Facebook Page. This feature provides a spot for your customers to interact by posting comments, photos and testimonials about your business. More importantly it’s a great low-key way for your customers’ friends to learn about your business.

Once your company has established a presence on Facebook you might want to graduate to display advertising. Because Facebook has a rich collection of statistics about its members you can specify very exact targets for the members who you would like to read your ads (age, occupation, location, etc).

What you should not do is ignore the vast numbers of your customers (and potential customers) who use Facebook on a daily basis to interact with friends and share experiences. Instead, harness this potentially rich source of customer referrals and soon you might be increasing your advertising reach by 10 times or more due the power of Facebook.

photo credit: Robert S. Donovan

About the Author

Wayne Schulz is the founder of Schulz Consulting. He began his career working for two professional service organizations and managing their consulting divisions. He has been active not only with the implementation of Sage MAS 90 and 200 accounting software but often is engaged to help clients design or evaluate their current accounting procedures.