Get Local With Your Facebook Strategy
Rob Bowman, Dominion Enterprises, SellorDieTrying.com
February 1, 2012
Filed under Guest Blog
By now I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “content is king,” particularly when it comes to developing a Facebook strategy. Without engaging content your fans will lose interest and your message is not likely to achieve viral success. So in my opinion, that phrase is missing one word : Relevant. “Relevant content is king” should be your mantra when developing your next move on Facebook. If you are a multi-location marine dealership or brokerage firm managing one corporate Facebook page, it may benefit you and your fans to think about creating a separate fan page for each individual market.
With Facebook approaching one billion users, the next phase of social media will be dominated by localization. If you are on Facebook you are likely already interacting with businesses nearby, particularly if it is only a singular location like your local vet, auto repair center, etc. Why not your local marine dealer and service center? Even Walmart in recent months has gone from an 11 million fan page behemoth, to a local approach where each neighborhood store has their own page – over 3,600 of them in all. Fans of the corporate Walmart page can use a store locater, “like” their local store page, and get daily specials in their news feed. These local pages receive up to 5 times more engagement from fans than the centralized, corporate fan page.*
MarineMax was one of the first marine dealers to adopt this strategy by creating Facebook fan pages for each individual market. There are more than 25 MarineMax pages with a combined fan base of more than 25,000 people and growing. Each page offers a look into the local boating environment with photos, videos, and discussions about local boating destinations and events. Bass Pro is another example of a recreational company gone local with Facebook. Every Bass Pro Shop has their own webpage on BassPro.com, linking visitors to the local Facebook fan page where reviews on items are published and discounts are offered on specific merchandise.
If you are thinking about creating a Facebook page for your local dealership, also consider these strategies:
Get everyone involved. If you are a marketing manager at one location managing the Facebook page for another location, it will be especially important to have someone on the ground responsible for letting you know about local events, post photos of the location, and talk about what is happening at the dealership. By getting more people involved and allowing them to feel a sense of ownership in the Facebook page, you will receive more content, get higher quality photo/video assets as the person providing them feels invested, and even a back-up for when you are unable to post.
Make it easier on yourself. The world of social media dashboards are expanding rapidly with many of these tools being free to marketers or at least a minimal cost. Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, and SproutSocial are all examples of social media dashboards that not only allow you to post your message to multiple Facebook pages at once, but are also integrated with Twitter, Google Plus, and LinkedIn. These tools offer you a greater insight into your Facebook traffic by showing you how many people have visited your page, where they spent their time, and who your best brand advocates are on Facebook and Twitter.
Think about the Search Engines. Many times you will find a Facebook page at or near the top of a search on Google because of the amount of content being posted as well as Facebook being a longtime trusted website. Since your fan page is essentially a window into your business, having your page rank high on search engines can result in higher traffic not only to your page, but also your dealership. Try to use keywords in the page description and in your posts that are traffic builders like “boat dealer”, “boats for sale”, or “boat service”. Add in specific location words like the city or county you are business is targeting for a more relevant approach.
Create Excitement with Online Contests, Games. Contests and promotions are a great way to boost the number of fans on your page and the level of engagement. It can be as simple and inexpensive as giving away t-shirts for the best boating photo of the day, or you can get more creative and use one of the many apps out there that allow you to register users for a drawing right on your fan page such as Wildfire Interactive. Remember to not only announce the promotion on your social media pages, but also include it in a monthly email to your customers, post a sign in your dealership about the contest, and let your customers know that is going on.
* Based off a study in 2011 by socialbakers.com, http://www.socialbakers.com/blog/136-proof-local-facebook-pages-work-much-better-than-the-global-ones/
Rob Bowman is Senior OEM Sales Manager at Dominion Enterprises, parent company to Boats.com, BoatTrader.com, and Yachtworld.com. Rob was previously at MarineMax for 7 years and managed the company’s marketing and web marketing initiatives. Rob is also author of the blog SellorDieTrying.com.
