Lesson One: You Gotta Have a Facebook Presence

Inevitably, we all have electrical appliances that stop functioning as they should. Those of us who can restrain ourselves from throwing the appliance off of the back deck in a fury will often consult with the owner's manual (in years past, a hard copy, but more often these days, a .pdf file produced by a quick internet search). The troubleshooting section of such manuals won't always solve the problem, but it's worth a shot.

But no matter whether it's our toaster that isn't working properly, or our television, or our refrigerator, or our vital coffee maker, our .pdf owner's manual always poses the same question first:  "Is the device plugged in?" And when we read it, we all have the same reaction:  "Well, DUH!!!!!"

Laugh it off, we do, thinking of the people who can't figure out why their blender isn't working when they haven't thought to plug it in first. But the same reaction should be given to pretty much any business owner who hasn't invested the nominal amount of time that it takes to establish a company presence on Facebook. A hypothetical conversation might go something like this:
Outsider:  "So, this is a nice little business you have here."
Business Owner:  "Well, thank you! We're trying..."
Outsider:  "Do you have a Facebook page up?"
Business Owner:  "No, we don't yet, but..."
Outsider:  "Well, DUH!!!!!"

Yeah, sure, Facebook has taken its lumps. The May 2012 IPO was a disaster, with the company's shares tanking almost immediately and subsequent shareholder-filed lawsuits. The dominant social networking company, led by twenty-something-year-old billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, seemed to suffer its first "come-uppance" in the financial world.

But no one should doubt the power of Facebook--especially its effectiveness as a social media tool for businesses of all sizes. Anyone who has fully participated in the social gathering that Facebook provides knows well the networking power that the platform offers. Even those people who have only dabbled in Facebook are likely to be aware of the software's objective of creating connections between users.

We launched the Ocean Gallery Facebook page several years ago--I'll discuss the page from time to time as I move forward with this blog series. Over time, we have posted a number of funny videos (including several of our past "crazy" advertisements, including the famous "bike jump off of the roof" video). We routinely post pictures of new artwork that becomes part of our inventory and celebrities that visit the stores. Some might ask, "Does it really help?" The more telling question might be, "How can it hurt?"

The Ocean Gallery Facebook page as of April, 2013.

There are two key reasons to establish and maintain a Facebook presence. The first reason is that it's FREE. Yes, you can spend extra $$$ to promote your business by placing advertisements along the sidebar, though the effectiveness of doing so has been questioned. But there can be no downside to having a free online presence. The second reason strikes at the heart of marketing fundamentals:  the more that you can place your company/brand/product before the eyes of potential customers, the more likely these potential customers are to think about your company/brand/product. It follows that the more likely people think about your company/brand/product, the more likely they are to consume your company's products and/or services. Ultimately, this becomes a "no-brainer."

If you're still not convinced about the utility of a Facebook presence for your business, well..... DUH!!!!!