"Facebook is very image-driven, and we're a very visual product. People go to the page and find their way to us," said John Dudas, of Carol and John's Comic Book Shop in Cleveland's Kamms Plaza.
WARRENSVILLE HEIGHTS, Ohio - The best way for small businesses to reach potential customers is by being on the phones consumers are carrying around in their back pockets and checking several times a day. That's according to Nina Ferritto, a Facebook small-business expert who travels around the U.S. teaching business owners how to thrive on the world's most popular social media site.
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View full sizeCleveland Whiskey CEO Tom Lix Facebook's workshop for small businesses at Corporate College on Wednesday attracted nearly 400 people from throughout Northeast Ohio. It was the third stop on a three-day Ohio tour that also drew crowds in Columbus and Canfield.
It also took place during a week when Facebook was widely criticized for some social experiments conducted by its in-house researchers to manipulate the newsfeeds of nearly 700,000 of its 1.3 billion users to show them either largely positive or negative posts and see how they responded. Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg apologized for the 2012 study, saying it was "poorly communicated," according to The Wall Street Journal.
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View full sizeU.S. Rep. Marcia L. Fudge On Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Marcia L. Fudge welcomed attendees to Warrensville Heights, saying it's crucial that the more than 800,000 small businesses in Ohio be conversant on sites such as Facebook, because studies show they benefit more than larger national competitors from social media marketing.
"Facebook has helped me connect with and serve my constituents in ways not possible before," Fudge said, inviting folks to follow her on Twitter at @RepMarciaFudge and like her at Facebook.com/RepMarciaLFudge, where she has more than 23,000 followers. She is also active on Instagram and YouTube, and currently ranks No. 6 among House Democrats in an informal social media competition.
Ferritto, a Cleveland native whose father owns a salon in Willoughby, said she knows firsthand how hard small-business owners work to get the word out and bring customers into their stores.
But as a Zumba fitness instructor looking specifically for women ages 18 to 45 who enjoy physical fitness, dancing and Latin music, and live with a certain radius of Austin, Texas, Ferritto said Facebook helps her reach that demographic.
In Cleveland, as everywhere else, people are scrolling through their news feeds, and interacting with friends and their favorite brands, she said, with 72 percent of Facebook's most active users checking in daily. "If they've got their phones in their back pockets, let's reach them there."
When Facebook decides what to promote on users' news feeds, it posts only the most relevant content, based on "What is going to be most relevant to this person? What do they want to see and what do they care about?"
Facebook's Andy Stone said those preferences are based on what users are reading and sharing publicly, not on what they're sharing privately.
Facebook.com/business not only raises awareness of your business, it inspires users to buy, Ferritto said. People don't just want to find a pizza shop in Cleveland, they want to know the nearest one that's open and has good online reviews. A recent poll found that "38 percent of respondents have made a purchase as a result of a 'share' or a 'like,'" she said.
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View full sizeSpiderman comics at Carol and John's Comic Shop in Cleveland John Dudas, owner of Carol and John's Comic Book Shop in Cleveland's Kamms Plaza, was one of four local businesses who shared how they use Facebook.
"Facebook is very image-driven, and we're a very visual product. People go to the page and find their way to us," he said. Their Facebook page has 4,300 likes. Attracting people who genuinely appreciate what they do is more important than having lots of likes from people who are only nominally interested, he said, because "I want people to walk in my brick-and-mortar store."
"We use it as a way to promote our events and show the after-effects of those events," Dudas said. "A good image goes a long way. People like to see that you're involved with your community."
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View full sizeJeff Moreau is owner of Sweet Moses Soda Fountain & Treat Shop Sweet Moses Soda Fountain & Treat Shop, in Cleveland's Gordon Square Arts District, started its Facebook page in September 2010, before it opened in March 2011, to help build word-of-mouth. "I actually know who my first Facebook fan was," said owner Jeff Moreau.
He uses his Facebook page, which has 6,800 likes, to show that his store offers more of an experience than other ice cream shops, as well as to feature special items available that day. By engaging with fans, "I can immediately tell who's interacting and what they're reacting to. It also tells me what's a dud and what people aren't reacting to."
Nick Francis and Max Simon, co-founders of The Fear Experience Haunted House in the Cleveland suburb of Parma, said social media helped turn their interest in all things ghoulish into a thriving business where customers pay to go through with laser weapons shooting at costumed actors. "Ninety percent of our marketing is through Facebook," and it's paid off in 62,800 likes, Francis said. "We literally could target anybody who said they like 'hunting zombies.'"
Even though their haunted house takes place only in September and October, "we're trying to become a source of funny, relevant, interesting content" all year long, Simon said.
When one person complained on their page about the wait, Francis wrote back: "I'm sorry that the line was too long on Saturday," and suggested he come back on Sunday. Other people saw the exchange and took his advice, too.
Ferritto said, "It's something that we get asked all the time, 'Should I delete my negative comments? 100-percent No. Respond to them and make it a two-way conversation." Replying shows people that there's a real person reading their comments and elicits a better reaction than ignoring them.
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View full sizeNick Francis, left, and Max Simon inside Fear Experience, the haunted house they started in a former Value City store in Parma. And 9.9 times out of 10, critical people whose questions are answered become some of their most loyal customers, Francis said.
When they found a fan who thought everything they did was great, they asked him to email them his address and sent him a Fear Experience T-shirt and other merchandise. That got other people to start posting positive comments, too, he said.
Moreau of Sweet Moses said negative rants are inevitable, but the best thing about them is that sometimes other customers will jump to his defense and retort with the things he would love to say but can't.
Andrew Lix, marketing officer for Cleveland Whiskey, said they joined Facebook to get their name out. Although his father, who has a doctorate in marketing, favored TV commercials and newspaper ads, Lix jumped feet-first into social media with Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and blogging. Their Facebook fan page has 30,600 likes.
"We were guilty of just caring about the likes," he said. "But it's not all about likes. Engagement is much more important, and how you engage with our whiskey." He said it's better to have fewer, high-quality posts, because "otherwise it comes across as spam."
Instead of simply promoting whiskey, for example, they've posted recipes for barbecue ribs that use their whiskey, hoping that will spur purchases.
Ferritto, the Facebook expert, agreed. "We all have that friend, the one that shares so much you know everything that they're doing: They just got out of bed, they're brushing their teeth."
"You don't want to be that business," she said.