Facebook = business

Facebook = business

January 18, 2012 1990s color me badd Facebook Facebook fan pages faxing grunge land-lines Shit Wookies Say 0

Like most of you, I primarily love Facebook as a way to waste time. Well, waste time and look at the photos of people’s boy/girl-friend and wonder how that happened. ( I know, I know: meow meow meow…meow!) But, and I swear this is true: Facebook is also amazing for business. It feels weird to even type the words “Facebook” and “business” in the same sentence, but if you’re engaged in some form of business–from a food blog to getting a better job to promoting your band–and you don’t have a Facebook page for said business…you hear that sad trombone noise? It’s for you. It’s wondering when you’re going to leave the 1990s and join the rest of us. Should I send you this blog entry by fax?
Here’s the thing: a Facebook page for your band, or your comedy club, or your TS dating site (Hello, Photoshop!) or your wigs for cats website (I’ve always felt The Kitten was a blonde.), is instant and immediate free advertising. Every time you post, it goes out in your fans’ news-feed reminding them about your business and demonstrating how your business is relevant to their lives. If you are, for example, a struggling actor, and you regularly post updates about auditions you go on, plays you’re reading, roles you’re studying, classes you’re taking, photos of yourself, clips from movies you like, clips of your performances, actors who inspired you, etc…one day, I promise you, one day, a friend, or a friend of a friend will check out your page and think, “Oh, I should have this guy audition for my [fill in the blank]”…and later on, when you’re an obscenely overpaid TV sitcom actor, talking about yourself and your “gift” in the third person, making the crew address you by your character’s name, and not allowing people to make eye contact…you’re welcome.
If you post interesting, timely and relevant things, friends of your fans will also start checking out your page and following you. And, crucially: the necessity of constantly having to update your page, and therefore to find interesting and relevant items that will promote your brand, will have the effect of focusing your mind upon your brand. That, in turn, will force you to carefully define your brand, which will then increase your understanding of all the brand-related opportunities out there. Opportunities you otherwise probably would not have even noticed.
You’re rolling your eyes at me, saying: “Um, Carlota: how is posting quotes, or snarky photos or “Shit Wookies Say”, going to help me promote my business?” Um, how is it not? Through my Facebook business page, I’ve gotten numerous clients and incredible opportunities; I’m taking my play ever closer to production and I’ve keep meeting fantastic contacts who are helping me promote my brand. (I’ve also over-shared about my dating/drinking habits…but that’s a bonus! Non, je ne regrette rein…)
Later on, I’ll be giving ideas for what you can post if, unlike me, you have some discretion and perhaps don’t wish to appall your parents by revealing every aspect of your life, and your cats’ lives, to humanity.
For now, however, if you’re trying to get a business up and running–and if you know me, you know that I think everything is a form of business–and you don’t have a Facebook page…sigh. Come on, get out of the 1990s: we listened to ‘Color Me Badd’ fer chrissake. Remember those parachute pants? Grunge! (*shudders*) You can do better.

This is the 1990s:

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