Facebook and Local Businesses

bythomasgj

1.1K followers

Updated 7 years ago

Are you in the Local Business space or are you doing an Offline Business model? Do you run a Facebook group or page for your business with the hope that you're going to get more customers because of the fact that you have a group or page? If that's you, then you should B-L-O-W U-P your Facebook group or page! I am going to tell you why...

For the ones who doubt if they should read another line of this, let me make it clear as to what I mean by Local Business space or an Offline Business model. I am specifically referring to the businesses whose prospects are stationed locally. In other words, if your prospect has to visit your business premises or if you have to visit your prospect to deliver goods or services, then you fall under this category. Few examples would be - Dentists or other Medical Practitioners, Restaurants, Wedding Services, Physiotherapists, Plumbers, Daycare or Child Services etc, etc...

Before I tell why you should blow up your Facebook group or page, do yourself a favor and ask - as a warm-up exercise - When was the last time you logged into Facebook to find a local Dentist? Even better, ask (provided you don't already know a local Dentist), "If I get a severe toothache and have to search online for a local Dentist, where would I first look up?" If you think practically, without an iota of doubt, it's not on Facebook that you would look up; intuitively you would search on Google. Or if you belong to the 33% of the crowd, you would try Yahoo or Bing.

At the most fundamental level, as a businessman (or woman) you need customers - customers who 'pay' for your services - not just a 1000 people who know you exist! Furthermore, if you are in the local space, you want people to show up at your door or want people to call on your business phone. Then is when you can provide services, or goods, depending on your business and eventually make money. I am sure, end of the day, you can care less about getting new followers or likes or shares or comments or whatever, as long as you make enough money from your business.

So, if you want 'real' customers and if you are hoping to get them using the internet, you got to have a different approach. You got to find a way to position your business on the first page of Google or other search engines. Better, if you could get into the '3 pack'. If you are not familiar with '3 pack', then open Google.com on your browser and search - 'Dentist New York' - and then scroll down a bit and you will see a map with 3 business listings below that. That's the '3 pack'. You can do the search for any business in any local area, anywhere in the world and Google will show you a '3 pack'. If you get in there, your phone will ring... people will show up at your door... you will make money... If you take time to do your research, you can find ways to get in to the first page of Google or even into the covetous '3 pack'.

Before it's too late, let me tell you, I am not against Facebook groups or pages, but all I am saying is you need to know where and how to 'play your game' depending on the business you are running and the platform you are focusing. If you're running a business where you can cater to your prospect's needs online (without they having to visit you or you having to visit them) a Facebook group or a page can be of benefit.

Studies reveal that a user spends 20 minutes daily on Facebook on an average. I consider that as a minimum. If you are managing a Facebook group or a page, you know better than me that this number can go into an hour, if not more, considering that it's natural to end up checking your personal Facebook page and spending some time in there while managing your business page. As a businessman, if the time you're investing to acquire customers using a particular platform does not give you a significant yield, it's only logical to discard that and invest in some other platforms or mediums which gives you a better ROI. To top it up, there are practical difficulties in measuring yield obtained via Facebook groups or pages. If you cannot measure the acquisition size obtained from a particular platform, then you will not be able to scale it up.

Another aspect that you need to consider is 'Internet Penetration' (the percentage of people using the internet in a particular area). If your business is put up in a locality (say, a small city or town) where Internet Penetration is too low, then you should look for some other medium for customer acquisition - not internet and definitely not a Facebook group or a page. Better, if you could use multiple mediums in such a situation. But the good news is, there are only a few places in the world right now where the penetration is less than 50%. Thanks to the rapid technological advancements!

All that being said, if you are a local businessman who feels at heart there is potential in having a Facebook group or a page when it comes to customer acquisition, then, by all means, keep your group or the page active but at least make a sincere attempt to measure the acquisition rate and find it out for yourself if the time you spend managing it is worthwhile.