Debbie Mayo-Smith : Marketing to an empty room

9:30 AM Monday Oct 3, 2011

Several weeks ago I wrote about having the right focus to achieve your goals. Read it here.

• Right Clients
• Right Results
• Right Activity
• Right Place

I gave it the acronym C.R.A.P. Hideous, but it fits and it is memorable.

It's the Place I'd like to comment on today. Place meaning where your marketing communications, time, business development initiatives are sent. The mode.

Are you relying on Facebook to be your marketing database (your fans) and as the main distribution channel of your business communications?

If you are, I have two things to say:

1. You're lazy
2. You're going to be sorely disappointed

You must think I have a huge amount of gall to call you lazy. But how much more time, cost, energy and planning goes into developing a computer database of customers and prospects? With Facebook you simply type something into a status update.

You won't get the results you want from Facebook when used in relative isolation. Why?

1. Empty room:
All that effort goes into talking to no one. Fan base of 100? 150? 400? Whoopie. It still means nothing. You're marketing to an empty room.

2. Grouping posts:
If your target market is young, yes, they'll be there. But will you be in among all their friends? Facebook personal profiles (where people see your posts) have a grouping function. The ability to create groups of people - friends, family, work.... And then view only the posts within these groups. How often will your posts be looked at by them? Even if they don't group, Facebook prioritises posts - you're vying with friends, cool videos and such. You're marketing to an empty room.

3. Speeding by:
With the popularity of Facebook, posts stream by with the speed of light. What does this mean? If your fans are not online and checking their Facebook accounts when you post something, it's a great chance they'll never see it, it's gone under the fold, heaped in with 400 other items. And you thought people were overloaded with emails. You're marketing to an empty room.

4. Older:
If your demographic is older, yes they're on Facebook. However it's primarily for personal reasons. Namely kids. So they don't check it that often. You're marketing to an empty room.

5: Low level of importance:
Everyone is time poor and barraged by too much information. If business people are your target market, where does your Facebook communication stand in level of importance? I believe responding to emails and phone calls are first on the list. Who has time left for more? You're marketing to an empty room.

6. Barred:
Finally, many businesses bar the Facebook website from work. Yes, I know, people can use their smartphones in these situations. But really? Can you rely upon that?

You're marketing to an empty room.

Written by international speaker and bestselling author Debbie Mayo-Smith. For more tips, over 500 how-to articles visit Debbie's article webpage.