Everywhere there are articles that tell businesses that they must have a social media presence—Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, to name three. It seems overwhelming to many small business owners and nonprofit managers already putting in long hours. But research and experience shows that there are rewards. For most people, especially those under 35, this environment is their life. They seem to live on Facebook and tweet about everything! For others it is frightening, foreign territory and simply makes no sense. Look at your market and find out where they are. If you aren't sure, just ask them.

A question I often get asked by clients is, "Do I have to?" The answer, as always is, "It depends."

The first thing you have to know is, where do your customers hang out? The audience for each of these social media sites is different, so you might benefit from having an active presence on one or some of them, but not necessarily all. For a start, here is my take on Facebook.

Most Facebook users are using it to talk about their daily lives, where they are, what they do with their time and what causes they support. They like to recommend a restaurant or service and be kept up to date on specials and product offerings. That means you want to be with them as they make decisions on how they use their money. This platform is excellent for that. According to socialbakers.com, there are over 17 million Canadians on Facebook (just a hair over the total population) and 50% of them are in the 18-35 age group. Fifty-four percent are female. If these numbers reflect your target market, you MUST have a presence for your business or organization on Facebook.

A client of ours, Atomic Cupcakes in Waterdown, Ontario uses Facebook well. The bakery changes cupcake flavours daily so Facebook is a great way to announce it with posts on their Facebook page. When someone likes the page, they receive daily updates on what flavours are on offer - with mouth-watering photos. Who wouldn't like that? Customers can also post pictures of themselves enjoying a cupcake. What a great avenue for endorsements and recommendations!

For charities and nonprofits, Facebook is a great way to keep your donors and supporters engaged. As a board member on a small nonprofit, I hear from donors regularly. Their feedback is consistent: keep me informed and show me how I'm making a difference if you want my donations to continue. Our nonprofit, Home of Grace Care Centre, does keep people updated. We report on board member visits, updates on the orphans and even post videos of the children singing. And it works. People like to receive these updates.

If you think it's too much work to do Facebook for your business, it isn't - especially when you consider the potential rewards. You don't have to write paragraphs. A sentence or two will do. In fact, short and sweet is better. Don't feel you have to be constantly posting. In fact, if you over-post, people tend to ignore you. Do not post more than once a day. So what do you post? Here are a few ideas: Specials, sales, new product or service, contests, boast about achievements, or recognize your employee of the month.

What about nonprofits? Do you have a critical need? Recognize a volunteer. Post a meaningful statistic about the population you serve. Boast about a milestone achieved. One charity I help, Micah House Refugee Reception Services, posts about needs of its clients and updates about the status of the house that are useful for volunteers and donors.

You can see that the possibilities are endless and if it's only a sentence or two, it can be fast. But like all marketing, you need a plan. How often will you post? What will you say? As the saying goes, "Measure twice and cut once." You could even create a schedule of posts so implementation is even faster.

At the same time, we don't often see people on Facebook talking about industrial valves or payroll services. Some B2B companies have made a foray into Facebook, question the value. Can readers of this article share their B2B Facebook experiences?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Regardless, I invite you to join the conversation…

A funny thing happened on the way to the web site. When I set up the very first version of this web site - over 10 years ago - I wanted it solely as an online brochure and portfolio. It was a place where people could go to see our work once they had already heard about us. I was not expecting to get new business through the web. When I first installed analytics on the site, the results were consistent with that view: most were arriving at the site as the result of a direct search. Search engine traffic was pretty small. I wasn't worried. Fast forward to today. I knew the proportion of web traffic on our site was changing, but I was recently surprised to see that over 75% of all traffic to the imaginecreative.com web site is through search engines! Not only that, but the web site is now a source of new business for us. Two things have happened in those years. First, buying habits have changed dramatically. People now make more buying decisions based on what they see on the web. And these are for high-end purchases, not just a book on Amazon or Indigo. The face-to-face purchasing paradigm is shifting. Second, our web site has had to adapt to that reality. Search engine optimization (SEO for short) is a reality in the world of web site design and development today. What have we done? Two years ago we switched the site to a content management system. This ensures that the site is friendly to search engines. Even the URL for each page is potentially infused with key words. We also ensure pages have appropriate meta tags and that pages are written with the appropriate keywords included. Daily, I still encounter people who do not have a web site, or figure that the site they set up many years ago are still working for them. I would suggest to them that they are not. And I have a first-hand example to prove it. By the way, if you don't already know, adding analytics to your web site is easy and the service itself is free. Contact your web developer to learn more. What do you think? Join the conversation and leave a comment.

Spam. We all hate it: those e-mails offering ‘authentic’ designer watches or the best prices for pharmaceuticals. There should be a law about that! Well, there isn’t – in Canada, anyways. Some people may be surprised to learn that Canada has no anti-spam legislation. Yet. Last year we had an article about anti-spam legislation. So what happened? Unfortunately it died when Parliament was prorogued.

Enter Bill C-28 the Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam Act. (Pretty snappy title, eh?) If passed, this legislation would finally provide anti-spam legislation to bring us up to speed with other industrialized nations which have had it for years.

When we talk of spam, we think about pharmaceuticals, sex sites and cheap knockoffs. But spam is ANY message sent without prior explicit permission from the recipient. Even if you assume they would like to receive it. Did you buy a list? Doesn’t matter. If you didn’t get each recipient’s permission, it’s still spam.

What does Bill C-28 mean for your business or nonprofit?

There are two major components required for law-abiding e-mail marketing (and it also makes good marketing sense, too)

1. The message itself must:
   • identify the sender
     
   • include contact information for the sender
     
   • have an easy unsubscribe or opt-out option
     
2. The recipient must have consented to receiving your messages or you must have an existing business relationship with the recipient.
   

So, what does ‘an existing business relationship’ mean?

For businesses: You have conducted business within the past two years or they have been in touch with you (e.g. made an inquiry) in the past 6 months.

For nonprofits and charities: You have up to two years after: the last donation, the last time they volunteered or the date of their their membership expiry.

Bottom line: you can no longer send someone a promotional e-mail just because you have their e-mail address. That means no more sending out to the lists you bought, no more broadcast messages to fellow members of your chamber of commerce (unless you consent to receive them when you join) or scooping email addresses from a directory or prospect’s web site.

Be a responsible marketer. If you aren’t already complying with the proposed legislation, start now.

In the future, we'll tak about how you can build your list without resorting to spam tactics.