Face It: You Need to be on Facebook
From Z. Kelly Queijo:
You've read it on Handshake2.0 before: Your successful marketing mix needs to include social media.
Now this:
“Every business needs to be on Facebook,” asserts Dean Browell, Director of New Media at Neathawk Dubuque & Packett (ND&P).
Browell headed up the Facebook project for Downtown Roanoke, Inc., (DRI) a private sector, not-for-profit development organization. The goal was to reach young professionals and increase their interest in shopping, working, and living in downtown Roanoke.
A public Facebook Fan page and YouTube videos were chosen as the necessary channels to reach this audience. According to Nielsen Media, with a user-base of over 39 million, Facebook is ranked as the second largest social media network touting a growth rate of 116% since September 2007. Started in 2004, targeting high school to college-aged students, Quantcast reports 47% of Facebook members are in the 18-34 age bracket and 43% over all have college degrees.
DRI promotes its Facebook Fan Page on the lower half of its home page with the image shown.
“A year ago, if you were to search YouTube videos of downtown Roanoke, all you would see were videos of skateboarders rolling through the streets of the city. Today, it's a different story and one that's told on Facebook,” said Browell.
The Facebook page created for DRI is designed to engage an audience. New videos of downtown city life, combined with leveraging data they already had (lists of stores and restaurants, press releases, etc.) provided what was needed to create a content-rich Fan page.
From Zero to 700
Reaching and growing the Downtown Roanoke, Inc. fan base was completely viral. Working with lists they already had, they sent an email out announcing their Facebook page. Those people told their friends, who told their friends...and the rest is history. Just one year later, DRI has grown to over 700 fans. Today, content is added monthly and the calendar of events is automatically updated through MyScoper.com
Browell acknowledged, “We didn't invent a culture, they were already there. We just gave them a place to go.”
Z. Kelly Queijo writes about people and their passions for business and technology.
Having a Facebook page today is where we were 10 years ago when people had to have web pages. Dean does a great job and is probably the foremost authority on social media in southwest VA. All organizations and event promoters must use the power of Facebook and MyScoper.com
Posted by: stuart mease | December 16, 2008 at 08:47 AM
I really enjoyed this article, but it is what I have come to expect from Kelly. Kelly you are truly unique in your ability to understand marketing, social media, business and be able to relate it to us regular folks. Thanks for the info, keep it coming.
Posted by: Patrick Carmody | January 14, 2009 at 01:40 PM