Thread: Facebook?
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Old 07-24-2014, 07:02 PM
todd richmond todd richmond is offline
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Just did a "like" and send a friend request.

fwiw, all of the venues kind of serve different purposes and hit different demographics. They can be pretty big time sinks as well so there is a cost/benefit ****ysis that needs to be done.

Forums like this depend on a critical mass of users. Below some magic number of active users/posts, they become more of an archive than an active community. There is value there, but probably not as a primary means of communicating with prospective/current customers.

FB is pretty ubiquitous (for businesses), and tends to be fairly vibrant and active as long as the company is regularly posting. One challenge is that it tends to be less controllable than a forum. As a business you want everyone to see, but then conversations are wide open as well. To me it isn't ideal for technical detail or nurturing close relationships, but great for keeping people informed.

Traditional web sites still are a destination for most people, in part because the business can control the user experience. With Facebook, you get a Facebook experience with your content within that framework. Difficult to have a list of products, support materials, etc. Easier to do that within a web context.

Twitter and Instagram are different beasts and unless you really want to be in the "constant publishing" biz, aren't great bang for the buck. They have a significant cult of personality factor, and it is hard to get traction beyond your core audience.

So as a veteran of over 20 years of "social media" (chat and newsgroups back in the dark ages), I find that small companies need to have a presence in web and Facebook. Beyond that running your own forum can have benefit but hard to build/keep a critical mass as the value is in the information. Since you post a lot that helps since most are here to get info from you, but typical forums spread that expertise out.

The other factor is the troll/annoyance thing. Easy to get sucked into nonsense in any social media setting, and it can be a liability to a brand. The digital world can be a pita...
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