Tag Archives: Facebook

Social Media Strategies Vs. Tactics | Marketing Vs. Advertising

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Lacey Welborn
Lacey and her brother Zeb Welborn founded Welborn Media. She has designed and launched websites, several projects, marketing materials, a podcast, a book and more. Her passions include her family, her friends, creating things and helping businesses grow.
Latest posts by Lacey Welborn (see all)

Marketing vs. Advertising

Advertising: The paid, public, non-personal announcement of a persuasive message by an identified sponsor; the non-personal presentation or promotion by a firm of its products to its existing and potential customers.

Marketing: The systematic planning, implementation and control of a mix of business activities intended to bring together buyers and sellers for the mutually advantageous exchange or transfer of products.

When talking with business owners and decision makers we are constantly inundated with questions about ROI, or Return on Investment.  While platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google have attempted to address those concerns the fact remains that it is difficult to track the complete ROI benefits social media can bring to a business.  Advertising makes it very easy to track the ROI of a particular campaign because it’s a one-shot deal which can be easily tracked.  Marketing on the other hand is very difficult to assess because it encorporates the overall plan of a business to attract new customers.

Marketing is a strategy, and advertising is a tactic that can be an implementation of a marketing strategy. However, advertising does not usually work alone toward its goal. Other tactics such as market research, media planning, public relations, product pricing, distribution, customer support, sales strategy, and community involvement are implemented alongside advertising. All of these elements must not only work independently but they also must work together towards the bigger goal. A tactical executive may be very skilled at putting into motion plans to get results, but fail to see the bigger picture. That is why they may confuse advertising for marketing. Strategic executives will have a better grasp on bigger concepts, but may not understand the best way to reach their customers.

In Chet Holmes’ book, The Ultimate Sales Machine, he tells us there are three types of executives, “A full 90 percent are what I call ‘tactical executives,’ while 9 percent are what I’d call ‘strategic executives.’ And only 1 percent – the most effective executives – possess the rare combination of both tactical and strategic abilities.”

Ultimate Sales Machine, Three Types of Executives. 90% Tactical, 9% Strategic, 1% Both

Holmes goes on to say, “Tactical executives think only in terms of making the sale for today. They don’t understand strategy . . . Strategic executives will often look at the situation from a global perspective and see if they can develop some high-level strategy that might help to solve the problem. These executives are brilliant. They create concepts, ideas, and strategies that most would never adopt. But strategic executives are not good at, or interested in, tactics. Hence, I’ve seen many big ideas that never come to fruition because strategic executives fail in the implementation of their big ideas.”
How far ahead do you see?
The executive who thinks both tactically and strategically can develop the big ideas and the big strategies and also use discipline and determination to see those brilliant strategies implemented at the tactical level. And just for the record, the second type of executive, the strategist, can often be paired with a strong tactician and be very successful. However, the strategist may have to keep explaining and selling his or her ideas again and again to the tactical executive.”

Social media is most effective when it is used as a strategy and not a tactic.  While a social media campaign can include some tactics and advertising features, it is most successful when used as a tool to market to potential and current customers.  When done properly social media can have a profound impact on any business.

To use social media properly it is imperative to become a social business.

 

GM Still Loves Facebook

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Lacey Welborn
Lacey and her brother Zeb Welborn founded Welborn Media. She has designed and launched websites, several projects, marketing materials, a podcast, a book and more. Her passions include her family, her friends, creating things and helping businesses grow.
Latest posts by Lacey Welborn (see all)

General Motors Facebook

General Motor’s decision to end its $10 million Facebook advertising campaign is big news in the social
media world. Many skeptics have used GM’s decision to pull their advertising dollars from
Facebook as a way to attack the effectiveness of social media marketing for businesses.
However, these skeptics fail to recognize the difference between social media marketing and
social media advertising. GM still loves Facebook and recognizes the importance of social media marketing, but has
failed to recognize the correlation between the Facebook advertising feature and profits. GM’s
decision to pull money from Facebook advertising has nothing to do with the effectiveness of
Facebook as a social media marketing tool.

GM is still spending 30 million dollars on Facebook content promotion. Despite having ceased
paid ads on the site, the car-maker continues to make full use of the social network. Their
Facebook page remains very active with several posts every day. This includes links to articles
about their products and their partners, as well as more traditional advertisements.

GM Facebook Post After Pulling Facebook Ads

GM stopped using Facebook Ads, but will continue producing Facebook Content

GM has built their Facebook following to 345,000 people through Facebook advertising. The
massive following they now have allows them to stop using Facebook ads, because
their 345,000 Facebook followers act as a built-in referral network to bring more customers
to their Facebook page. Facebook page interaction will attract new followers on a consistent
basis without advertising because their followers can interact with the page and share it with
their friends. The more “likes” they get, the more exposure they get.

According to a Mashable article, GM issued the following statement: “We are reassessing our
advertising, but remain committed to an aggressive content strategy with all of our products and
brands, as it continues to be a very effective tool for engaging with our customers.”

Don’t let people convince you that Facebook is not a useful tool because GM has pulled its
advertising dollars from Facebook. Arguments can be made either way about the effectiveness
of Facebook advertising; however, it remains clear that Facebook content promotion is
highly effective to engaging with a captive audience. Many other companies, including car
manufactures, say they do not plan on pulling their Facebook ads any time soon. Experts agree
that the ads can be an important part of a marketing campaign, but it is important to implement a
complete strategy that interacts with its audience in ways that keep their attention after bringing
them in with an ad. As a Ford representative put it, “It’s all about the execution. Our Facebook
ads are effective when strategically combined with engaging content and innovation.”

GM’s decision to pull their money from Facebook advertising may also not just be because
of the effectiveness of Facebook, but of GM’s decision to cut massive amounts of advertising
expenditures. GM also made big news recently for stating that they intended not to purchase a
$3.8 million dollar Super Bowl ad this year. Leading many to believe the new Chief Marketing
Officer, Joel Ewanick is seeking ways to cut his expenditures and is not cutting his
advertising just from Facebook ads, but across the board.

As a marketing tool, Facebook has proven its effectiveness time and time again. The percentage
of companies using Facebook to expand is increasing every month and sees no signs of slowing
down. Those companies that do not adapt to social media are missing out on a large captive
audience. In an increasingly digital world, traditional methods of advertisement don’t have the
same pull they used to. However, Facebook still has a lot to learn in terms of figuring out the
marketing game and knowing what exactly it has to offer. As its products continue to evolve,
companies that want to use social media will have to continue to adapt. We highly encourage
any business to develop a Facebook page and use Facebook as a way to connect with current and
potential customers. Having a Facebook presence is a built-in referral network. Don’t miss out
on the opportunity.

Who’s Your Ideal Customer?

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Zeb Welborn
The owner of Welborn Social Media and the founder of The Tutoring Solution.My goal is to help business owners share the passion they have for their business with as many potential customers as possible.By helping passionate people achieve their dreams I am helping to create a society of passionate leaders that will help inspire others to make their dreams a reality.
Latest posts by Zeb Welborn (see all)

Ideal Customer vs. Average Customer by Cynthia De La Torre

Who’s your ideal customer? Depending on your business, the difference between average and ideal customers could be hundreds, thousands or millions of dollars.

The average customer is someone who buys the product or service and has no relationship with the business beyond the buying and selling of goods.

The ideal customer is someone who continually buys the product or service and promotes the product or service to others.

As an entrepreneur, I learned early on that my success was dependent upon having people invested in my business and sharing my business with others. The Tutoring Solution, which provides tutoring for students across Southern California, was able to locate these ideal customers through email and social media campaigns. These ideal customers loved our product, loved the relationship I had developed with them, and encouraged other parents with kids in need to sign up for our tutoring services. One parent emailed her entire school telling them what a great job we were doing with her son, another encouraged five different families to receive tutoring from us and another, a High School Counselor, continues to refer every struggling student she comes across our way. These connections are not made by chance, they are fostered and have resulted in thousands of dollars in increased revenue.

Facebook and Twitter have given businesses the opportunity to locate these ideal customers and develop a win-win relationship that, when used effectively, will result in increased revenue. Not only do they make it easy to identify our ideal customers, but Facebook and Twitter encourage our customers to be more like our ideal customers. Every time they “like” our page, every time they “comment” on our page,and every time they “share” one of our posts, they are acting like a sales machine for our business.

Welborn Social Media has helped locate these ideal customers for the businesses we work. At Scrapbook Expo we developed a strong relationship with a scrapbooker from Georgia who continually re-tweeted our stuff. We connected with her and she told us she was contacting all of her Scrapbooking friends from across the United States to attend one of the Scrapbook Expos. Not only that, but she was sending our sales messages off to everyone she knew. Similarly, at Los Serranos, we located two fervent supporters of the golf course; we encouraged a stronger relationship which has resulted in the creation of our 19th Hole Stories where golfers share their most memorable events at the golf course and have taken their weekly golf match from a rival course to ours. At WireSpeed Systems we connected with Cisco Systems – the largest producer of computer networking equipment – where they made us their SuperFan of the month and consequently shared our business with more than 225,00o of their followers.

Facebook and Twitter give us the opportunity to identify, connect and grow our relationship with our biggest supporters. In the tutoring business, this has resulted in thousands of dollars in increased revenue. In other businesses, it could mean much, much more.

By its very nature, Facebook and Twitter encourage the sharing of information, and people will share what is important to them. If you give them an opportunity to connect with your business and make it easy for them to share your product or service, your business will benefit. If you want to make more money for your business, find who’s your ideal customer. From my experiences there is no easier way to find your ideal customers than through social media.

Contact Zeb Welborn today at (909) 973 – 9089 to schedule a free personalized presentation to demonstrate how we can help grow your business.

Leap Year Gives Us One Extra Day to Gain Customers for Your Business

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Zeb Welborn
The owner of Welborn Social Media and the founder of The Tutoring Solution.My goal is to help business owners share the passion they have for their business with as many potential customers as possible.By helping passionate people achieve their dreams I am helping to create a society of passionate leaders that will help inspire others to make their dreams a reality.
Latest posts by Zeb Welborn (see all)

It’s a leap year this year and even with the extra day, February flew by for Welborn Social Media. Now we’re well into March and looking forward to the new projects we’re working on through the end of the month to help gain customers for your business.

Facebook has made some major changes to individual’s profile pages incorporating them in the Timeline. At the end of March they’re switching Business pages over to timeline view as well. Stay tuned for Lacey’s tips on Facebook layout design for the new Facebook Cover Image as we start to create some exciting new designs.

After becoming annoyed with telemarketers, an excess of commercials, and distracting web advertisements we shared some of our favorite things about social media marketing.  Social Media is the Preferred Marketing for Everyone because it’s not intrusive and allows customers to seek access to your business.

The potential of Facebook is limitless.  In The Pyramid Scheme of Facebook Likes, we wrote about how building a large Facebook following can give you access to a much larger customer base.

We’re especially glad for the extra day this year. We are wonderfully busy and that doesn’t show any sign of stopping! We have several new clients and are excited to begin implementing their social media plans in the upcoming weeks.

We want to help gain customers for your business. We believe that social media marketing is the best marketing for for both the business and the consumer.  And, we know that social media, when done right, can benefit any business. If you or anyone you know is interested in growing their business contact us for a free presentation Welborn Social Media can have on any business.

Call Zeb Welborn for a custom presentation – (909) 973 – 9089

Social Media is the Preferred Marketing for Everyone!

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Lacey Welborn
Lacey and her brother Zeb Welborn founded Welborn Media. She has designed and launched websites, several projects, marketing materials, a podcast, a book and more. Her passions include her family, her friends, creating things and helping businesses grow.
Latest posts by Lacey Welborn (see all)

Direct mail, radio commercials, television commercials, billboards, flashing web advertisements, pop-up ads, and horribly timed telemarketing phone calls are all forms of marketing most people find extremely annoying. They are intrusions in our lives — always interrupting. They’re not like social media marketing. The biggest difference between this kind of marketing and social media marketing is that people get to pick and choose which social media messages they receive.

On Facebook you choose which pages you like, on Twitter you pick who you follow, when it comes to blogs you pick which ones you read. Social media allows you to subscribe to messages for the products and services you actually want to hear about.

Marketing your business to only those that want to receive your message at times during their day when they’re able to take in your message is more effective and less expensive than other forms of marketing. There are two forms of marketing, inbound and outbound. Inbound marketing is any form of marketing that helps you get found by potential customers. Outbound marketing is marketing that interrupts consumers and forces the message on them. When you think about it like this, outbound marketing sounds rather rude.

Social media has quickly become the most effective means for inbound marketing. But, simply switching your messages from outbound marketing outlets to your social media outlets isn’t enough. Outbound messages are trying to be heard over the massive amounts of other messages that a person is bombarded with each and every day. Outbound messages are the equivalent of screaming at someone. Inbound marketing in the form of social media is for people who are already seeking out information from you. They may appreciate something with more detail. And, since social media platforms are a place for conversation, it’s a perfect place to be conversational and to encourage interaction.

Social media marketing is ideal for both businesses and consumers. Don’t just try to be heard. Invest in social media marketing, get your message to those customers who are not only interested in your message, but are also at a point in time when they can fully absorb your message and interact with your brand.

At Welborn Social Media we truly believe that every business can benefit from social media marketing. If you’re interested in social media services for your business please contact Zeb Welborn at (909) 973-9089 or email Zeb@WelbornSocialMedia.com

Design a Customized Profile Image for Your Facebook Business Page

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Lacey Welborn
Lacey and her brother Zeb Welborn founded Welborn Media. She has designed and launched websites, several projects, marketing materials, a podcast, a book and more. Her passions include her family, her friends, creating things and helping businesses grow.
Latest posts by Lacey Welborn (see all)

One of the many things we do is set up Facebook Profiles. It is important to fully fill in profile information and to have a to-the-point description in the About section, since that always shows up on the side bar on the left of the Facebook page.

We do these things, but our favorite part of setting up a Facebook Business page is creating the page’s profile picture.

The maximum width for a Facebook image (as displayed on the profile page) is 180px. Which isn’t a whole lot of room. The good thing is that this image can be much longer. The maximum height is 540px (as displayed on the profile page). Which makes a good size space for you to add some color to a page, add information, or add an image that really expresses the brand.

One important thing to keep in mind is the page thumbnail. The thumbnail is the small square image that shows up next to your page name whenever you post on Facebook. This thumbnail is taken from your profile picture. To get a good thumbnail make sure there’s a square portion that’s almost as wide as your profile image dedicated to giving your page a good thumbnail. (To set your page thumbnail: After you post your profile image you can click to ‘change picture’ and ‘edit thumbnail’ to pick the appropriate part of your profile image to be the thumbnail.)

When designing a Facebook profile picture I usually make sure the logo takes up nearly the whole width of the image, that it has a square portion all to itself, and there’s no distracting background behind the logo. This portion will make up the thumbnail. Then I work with the colors and the attitude of the business to create something appealing and attractive. Sometimes it is important to get more information in the Facebook image, one thing I always try to include is some contact information. It should always be easy to find out how to get in touch with a company. I always keep the Facebook layout in mind when designing these pictures. Once I get the image together I like to put it into a screenshot of a Facebook profile so that I can really see how it’s going to look on the page. After a little fine tuning and approval from the business owner we post it up and admire how much a well crafted profile picture can really enhance the look of a Facebook page.

Keeping the Facebook layout in mind can let you have a little fun with profile images.Try adding a shadow to the edges of an profile picture to create a little bit of depth, or use the white background to your advantage by adding rounded corners. The white background could also be useful in creating a super 3-d look, a photo at an interesting angle with a white background could be used in the profile picture to create a really dynamic effect.


Lacey’s super special tip: Most people recommend that the Facebook page profile picture be 180px wide by 540px tall, but it’s better to upload a page image that is 250px wide by 750px tall. That way when the profile picture is opened the image viewer it will be full size.

If you would like help setting up a Facebook page for your business, or if you already have one but want it maximized contact Contact Zeb Welborn at (909) 973-9088. Be sure to ask about the other Facebook services we provide.

Facebook Likes — A Pyramid Scheme that Actually Works

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Lacey Welborn
Lacey and her brother Zeb Welborn founded Welborn Media. She has designed and launched websites, several projects, marketing materials, a podcast, a book and more. Her passions include her family, her friends, creating things and helping businesses grow.
Latest posts by Lacey Welborn (see all)

Most of us know to stay away from Pyramid Schemes. It’s an unsustainable, often very unethical, business model, but sometimes when you hear the pitch it sounds so promising. If you join the scheme and bring a couple friends into the business, and they each bring a couple friends, then you’ll all be making thousands of dollars. It sounds great! It’s just that in reality it never works like that. Someone is going to lose money and whether that’s you or your friends, it’s an unhappy ending.

Facebook has it’s own sort of pyramid scheme and it has a happy ever after ending. The Pyramid Scheme of Facebook Likes. It’s a little different than a traditional pyramid scheme, of course. Here’s how it works, you get one Facebook like. Now that you have a Like you post engaging content on your page. Your Like finds this content interesting and is compelled to comment on your page. This action shows up on your Likes page and introduces your business to all of their friends. His friends now have a convenient opportunity to Like your brand. At this point you must share more interesting content. So that your new Likes will interact with your page and introduce your page to all of their friends, and so on.

As you can see from this diagram it looks very similar to a pyramid scheme.

The most important part about this process is the continuous posting of engaging content that will interest your customers. Content that your target market will identify with. So, when one of your Likes is in need of your product or service they will know your brand, know what you do, and will remember you at that critical point in time. Gaining likes doesn’t always generate an immediate monetary return, but it sets any business up to gain more loyal customers in the future. By building those online relationships you can have friends of friends of friends of friends participating on your page, turning your decision to invest in social media into the greatest investment you ever made for your business.

Unlike a pyramid scheme it takes continuous effort. But also unlike a pyramid scheme, it actually works!

Check out our other post on Facebook Likes: The Value of a Like on Facebook

If you have any questions or are interested in investing in social media for your business contact Zeb Welborn at Zeb@WelbornSocialMedia.com or at (909) 973-9088.

The Power of Facebook: How Facebook Helped Furnish My Apartment

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Zeb Welborn
The owner of Welborn Social Media and the founder of The Tutoring Solution.My goal is to help business owners share the passion they have for their business with as many potential customers as possible.By helping passionate people achieve their dreams I am helping to create a society of passionate leaders that will help inspire others to make their dreams a reality.
Latest posts by Zeb Welborn (see all)

I moved into my first apartment earlier this month. I was apprehensive about the move.  After all, there are a lot of costs associated with moving into an apartment:  gas, electricity, water, TV, Internet, kitchen supplies, food, and . . . furniture.

Two weeks ago I had no furniture to call my own.  Now, I have a fully furnished apartment . . . all thanks to Facebook.

When I found out I was moving into my new, two bedroom I posted on Facebook to let my friends and family know that I could use some furniture. Man, did my friends come through!  I now have two couches, a refrigerator, a dining room table with chairs, a nightstand, a desk, towels, pots, pans, plates, bowls, silverware and a large list of other household goods. All of which didn’t cost me a dime!

Facebook, through the help of family and friends, has helped me furnish my apartment — something that very easily could have cost me thousands of dollars.  Love the power of Facebook.

If Facebook can help save me thousands of dollars in my personal life, just imagine what it can be capable of for a business.  By using Facebook businesses can connect with potential customers, engage with them and encourage them to become a part of the business and to become a repeat customer.

Every business can benefit from Facebook.  It’s a matter of understanding how to leverage your Facebook presence for the best results.  With over 800 million people now on Facebook, using it for your business is a no-brainer.  How will you use the power of Facebook to benefit your business?  Call us today to find out how we can help you use Facebook to build your business – 909 973 9089.

Thank you Mom, Dad, Rocky, Lacey, Lenore, Michael Nunez, Erin Rogers-Nunez, Joy Houghton-Klein, Jennifer Davis, Nick Cianflocco, Jimmy Wilson, Merriah Wilson and Laura Henson for helping make my apartment a home.