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Can You Have Too Many Friends?
A Business Page May Be The Answer
Corrinda Campbell, April 2009
As of January 2009 there are over 200 million users worldwide on Facebook. I think it’s safe to say this is not a fad and that Facebook is here to stay.
Why does this matter to small businesses that want to find effective low/no cost marketing solutions?
Facebook is emerging as one of the leading marketing tools in the social media world.
In fact, the largest growing population on FB is the often coveted Baby Boomers. In the last half of 2008 the 35 – 54 age group grew 276% and the 55+ group grew 194%, even the 25 – 34 group grew 101%. The growth has been astonishing and there’s no indication it is slowing down.
While there have been some bumps in the road, particularly with their Terms of Service, this train is barreling down the track at full speed. So if you haven’t already signed up on Facebook it’s time to get on board.
As a marketing tool FB utilizes relationship marketing as the primary tactic. While you can purchase pay-per-click advertising it’s more about sharing with your “friends” and creating word-of-mouth buzz. There are some challenges and questions to be answered.
The number one question facing FB users is, “Who will be my friends?”.
As a new Facebooker I was amazed at the variety of people I was able to connect with and had fun looking up old friends and colleagues. So I shouldn’t have been too surprised at the interesting group of people who crawled out of the woodwork of my life and wanted to be my friend.
So how do you pick and choose your friends?
This becomes especially challenging if you’re using FB as a business tool. Doesn’t it make sense to “Friend” everyone who asks? Don’t you want to biggest audience possible? Isn’t bigger better?
Well, it depends. FB opened the door to the general public in September 2006, previously it was dedicated to college and high schools students, and the early practice was to accept everyone as your friend. As a college student it would probably take a while to reach the 5,000 friend limit.
Is it possible to have too many friends?
Depending on how you’re using FB the answer is likely, yes. Ed Dale of the 30 Day Challenge recently set off quite a controversy and flood of commentary earlier this year over his choice to “unfriend” some of his 5,000 FB contacts.
Ed is in the public eye worldwide and teaches the popular free internet marketing course The 30 Day Challenge. And had been inviting everyone to be his FB friend, he quickly hit the 5,000 limit.
So what was the debate all about?
The old adage “less is more” applies here. With so many “friends” FB had become meaningless to Ed. With so many people posting their status, notes, and comments, he couldn’t get to the stuff that really mattered to him. It was getting pushed off the page.
Remember FB is all about relationships, personal and/or business. How many meaningful relationships can you create and nurture? For everyone it will be different. Personally, I was never a “friend counter”, someone who’s looking their number of friends constantly. From the beginning I took care who I accepted as a friend. I’d like to claim some great insight here but it was more a function of my Scorpio personality.
As you begin to swim in the FB ocean (I was going to say pond but it’s gotten too big) decide what’s important to you. How are you going to use this tool, personally and professionally?
I enjoy being in touch with friends who live all over and I might only talk to once in a while. Professionally, I appreciate updates on events, good articles and what’s going on with my colleagues outside of business.
At the end of the day, Ed Dale “unfriended” a large number of people in his FB world, and his world didn’t come to an end. In fact, FB became meaningful to him again. While some people disagreed with his choice, most supported it.
It’s okay to pick and choose, and when you “unfriend” a person there is no notification sent to them, you just stop appearing on their pages.
Back to how to use FB for business as a relationship marketing or networking tool.
Inside your FB account you can create pages dedicated to a specific topic. In this case it is your business. Earlier this year FB revamped this feature changing it to function much more like the rest of FB.
This gives you the opportunity to gather fans and communicate with them through a business channel. There are some good references that outline the new functionality listed below. It’s important to note that you cannot have two accounts with FB you create your business page as a part of your personal or business account.
Pages v. Groups
You can create a group for just about anything. In Denver we have the "Get rid of the horse at DIA" group. If you live here you'll know why it started. A page must reference an actual business or person.
To create a business page scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the advertising text link and select the pages tab at the top of that page. Or click on the page icon 
on the left side of the tool bar at the bottom of the screen.
A business page gives you the opportunity to target your messages and create a targeted audience. You can convert some of your friends into fans (you have fans on a page as opposed to friends), and you can reach a broader audience without clogging up your personal FB with too many postings. You are segmenting your contacts.
Of course, that doesn’t mean there isn’t some overlap. But overall you can network with a larger group of people creating the right kind of relationships with the right people in a more meaningful way.
So if you want to connect with people personally and professionally FB gives you the functionality to do both in a manageable and meaningful way.
Resources:
Facebook to Launch Redesigned Pages for Businesses - Tour & First Impressions
Facebook Pages Get More Business Friendly
Facebook Pages Product Guide
Don’t miss Cory Johnson’s presentation to the WIBN lunch group on May 8th, 11:30 – 1:15 pm. She’ll share exactly how she used FB to build and launch a successful new company. Click here for details.
Corrinda Campbell, M.B.A. is a small business online marketing consultant in Denver, CO and host of the Women In Business Network Luncheon. She helps entrepreneurs and small business owners take control of their online marketing by providing low-cost easy to use Wordpress websites and blogs. And by creating comprehensive solutions that go beyond an online brochure and are coordinated with a detailed communication plan.
Wise Words
“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity”
Albert Einstein
