Open Air Business April 2017
The UK's outdoor hospitality business magazine for function venues, glampsites, festivals and outdoor events
The UK's outdoor hospitality business magazine for function venues, glampsites, festivals and outdoor events
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INDUSTRY TALK<br />
PAGES VS. GROUPS<br />
There are two ways to communicate with your audience<br />
on Facebook, one is through your business page, the other<br />
is through groups - either your own, or ones you’ve been<br />
invited to join. I often get asked which is better, and to that I<br />
say… neither. And both.<br />
Pages and groups have different purposes, different<br />
benefits, and different possibilities - they’re simply not<br />
interchangeable.<br />
A Facebook page is like a personal profile for your<br />
business, and allows your fans to follow a brand. It’s very<br />
easy to update, you can post whatever you like (following<br />
the Facebook guidelines of course), and you can personalise<br />
it in line with your brand. You also have access to Facebook<br />
Insights, so you can monitor the performance of each of<br />
your posts, and it’s essential if you want to run ads.<br />
However, there are a few downsides. For starters,<br />
everything is out in the open. You can’t stop people<br />
from seeing what you post (or what others post), and<br />
communication (especially between fans) can be difficult to<br />
manage. You will also have to fight the newsfeed algorithm,<br />
which tends be tougher on page updates than group<br />
updates. It can be difficult to grow a page organically, so you<br />
will need to work hard at it.<br />
A Facebook group is a place to bring people together<br />
who are interested in a particular topic. It’s an incredibly<br />
powerful tool to build connections, but it is definitely more<br />
about a personal presence than a brand.<br />
You may be reaching a narrower audience, but it will also<br />
be a more focused one. Again, it takes some work to build a<br />
large, engaged audience, but it’s worth it.<br />
The pages/groups toss-up will always depend on your<br />
intentions. Do you want to promote your business? Do<br />
you want to establish yourself as an expert? Do you want<br />
to cultivate a community? Do you need to run ads? Think<br />
about all of these things and then work out which is right<br />
for you.<br />
FACEBOOK ADVERTISING<br />
Facebook ads are a great equaliser.<br />
Smaller scale businesses can<br />
now explore paid advertising<br />
opportunities without the need<br />
for a big-brand marketing budget.<br />
For a relatively low spend, you can<br />
get in front of a wider audience of<br />
your choice, promote your unique<br />
offering, and encourage them onto<br />
your mailing list.<br />
Advertising can be a scary<br />
prospect if you’ve never done it<br />
before - Facebook is a fab way<br />
to dip your toe into that pool.<br />
Facebook also has some really handy<br />
guidelines to help you get started.<br />
Whether you’ve been using<br />
Facebook as a business for a while,<br />
or your experience is limited to the<br />
Candy Crush variety, these simple<br />
tricks can help raise your profile<br />
and reach more customers (without<br />
having to invest all your time or all<br />
your money).<br />
I have a free series that shares<br />
my top hacks for each of the<br />
social media platforms, including<br />
Facebook. If that sounds good,<br />
use this link to sign up gwent.co/<br />
hacksseries and they’ll be in your<br />
inbox quicker than a quick thing.<br />
FACEBOOK LIVE<br />
One of my very favourite things about Facebook is the Facebook Live function.<br />
Streaming live video is huge in the marketing world, and is only growing<br />
momentum. It’s a brilliant way to engage with your followers in a more intimate<br />
way - they start seeing you as a person, as well as a business, and they have the<br />
chance to ask questions, live.<br />
With anything event-related, live streaming can be incredibly impactful. It<br />
provides you with a unique opportunity to show your facilities in use, so that<br />
your customers get a real feel for what their experience could be like.<br />
USEFUL LINKS<br />
Buffer – www.buffer.com<br />
Hootsuite – www.hootsuite.com<br />
Smarterqueue – www.smarterqueue.com<br />
Canva - www.canva.com<br />
Facebook advertising guidelines - www.<br />
facebook.com/business<br />
Social Media Hacks Series – www.gwent.co/<br />
hacksseries<br />
ABOUT THE AUTHOR<br />
Gemma Went is a digital strategist, business mentor and Bride to Be. She’s been working in the social media world<br />
since before Twitter even existed and has been teaching businesses how to harness the power of this online tool<br />
ever since. She was the social media director at two London agencies, the first to create a social media strategy for<br />
the BFI London Film Festival and the first to put fashion bloggers on the red carpet next to the press at the Global<br />
Fashion Awards. Go here for more on Gemma: gemmawent.co.uk and, of course, Tweet her here @gemmawent<br />
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