So you have decided to join the Social Networking revolution and set up a Facebook page for your business. So what do you do now? Well here is my top 5 tips for getting started in Facebook.

1. First thing to do is to upload an image. Don't make it a small one though, it can be up to 500 pixels deep and 200 pixels wide, so make sure you take up the whole area. Even if you only have a small logo, use the area below and above it to add details about your business, including your web address. Check out ours here.
2. Before you post anything, I suggest you check out what everyone else is doing. The best way to do this is to start "like"-ing other businesses. Start buy doing a search (in the area at the top of your page) for businesses in your area. You can just use yout town's name, or search for businesses in your industry like "marketing." Not only will you see what everyone else is doing, you can always "share" these posts and when you "ilke" someones elses page, they often "ilke" you back in return.
3. The main aim of Facebook is to get as many "likes" as you can so you will have to add the "like" button to your web site and any other areas you you can. To do this just go to your account tab and then to the help center and search for "add like button" and follow the instructions. You should also put some signs up in your business, saying "find us on Facebook"
4. The above tips should get you started, and once you get past 25 likes, you can claim a unique URL or Facebook address for your page. For us it is http://www.facebook.com/solutions4biz with the "solutions4biz" part making it easy for you to share your Facebook page. You can do this at http://www.facebook.com/username/
5. Once you have liked a few other pages, you should go and make a "post" on their site. Don't be to blatant about promoting your page, but you can post something like, "If you are after some free marketing tips for your business, you can visit our Faebook page here."

Hopefully this will help get you started. Good luck!

Today I coined a new phrase, "20 / 20 Marketing."

Like the cricket game whose name of I have "borrowed", it is fast and produces a result in a very short time, which seems to be what people are looking for in the fast moving economy.

Here is how it works. Start by printing off a list of your customers from your database. (If you haven't got one, you should have.) If you have a business where you don't collect details, perhaps like a cafe, think about who your typical customers are.

Now you have got a list to work with, think about who the top 20% of your customers are. This could be based on dollars spent, repeat purchase, ease to work with or whatever you determine. Now think about who would be in the bottom 20% of your customer base, the customers you would rather do without. This could be based on how little they spend, how difficult they are to work with or how infrequently they purchase. (This is where the 20/20 comes from).

Now that you have identified them, start thinking about what type of people they are. Are your top 20 single with disposable income, are they business owners, are they brand conscious? Think about why they would buy from you, what sort of magazines they would read and what would influence their buying decisions. Write down a list of their attributes and pretty soon you have a very clear picture of what a "good" customer looks like and what you need to do to gain more. Do the same with your bottom 20 customers and make a list of their attributes.

So now you know what a "good" and a "bad" customer looks like, how you can use it in your marketing? Well for starters, don't spend any time or money trying to advertise or promote your products to the bottom 20. If they are price shoppers, stop advertising using prices as a selling point, if they are slow payers, implement a system that rewards early payment. As for your top 20, if they are typically a small business owner, starting moving in those circles, join a Chamber of Commerce or search your local Yellow Pages for businesses.

You will be surprised how much information you find out about your customers doing this and how useful it can be. If you use it wisely you should be able to get rid of your bottom 20% and increase your top 20% by the same amount. That will mean that 40% of your customers are now great and you don't have any "bad" customers any more. Then if you do it again in 12 months time, the figures would look even better.

More "good" customers and less "bad" ones. That is a result that anyone would be happy with.

Great presentation by Seth Godin on standing out

I have been retailing for over 20 years with physical stores and we opened one of the first online Golf Shops in Australia. www.justgolf.com.au

I have seen internet sales grow for our business, but the amount of online competitors has grown more, so it is getting harder to compete online. I see the main threat to retailers as the “garage based Ebayers” that buy and sell online. These sellers account for a considerable percentage of online sales and in most cases avoid expenses that “genuine” retailers have such as tax, rent, workers comp, insurance etc. These costs have to be passed on to buyers, but the “garage” businesses are avoiding this.

In the end, the comsumers will determine which form of retailing survives. They might be buying online at the moment and price shopping, but once they have a few bad experiences online, they may move back to bricks and mortor, or at least online shopping with known retailers.

Personally, I have decided to close my physical store and go back to online retailing only, so I can reduce overheads, but I will have the advantage of trading with a name that has been involved in retailing for over 25 years.

It will be interesting to see what the years ahead hold, but I can’t see traditional retail dying all together. I think smart retailers will continue to utilize both methods of distribution.

The journey for me is now going full circle. Over the years a lot of my fellow retailers asked me to build online stores for them and now what started as a side line, has now grown to a full time business. So early next year when I close my physical store I will be offering web services for online retailing and marketing. You can check out my new business at www.Solutions4.Biz

If you can’t beat them, join them!

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This was also posted on Flying Solo. You can read all the posts and discussions here