USA TODAY International Edition
Fine- tuning their social media helped boost sales by 25%
Networking group offers advice to small businesses
PASADENA, CALIF. Mia Mazadiego and husband Mark Guenther run the small mom- and- pop Neon Retro Arcade, where for $ 10 an hour, you can play retro games such as Donkey Kong, Ms. PacMan and Frogger as much as you want.
A retro video arcade is about as unlikely a place to find a big social media following. But thanks to specific input from social media giant Facebook on how to finetune their social presence, the couple saw sales increase by 25%.
The couple got invited to join the Facebook Small Business Council, a networking organization that dishes out advice and education on how to get the most out of the social network. Finding the right social media partner — and learning how to work with it — has helped the company boost business.
The council allowed the couple to “connect and have more contact with people who have more experience than we do in advertising, creative and the right targeting,” Mazadiego says.
Being in the council allowed the couple to bounce ideas off others and fine- tune their Facebook posts to bring more people into the store, they say.
Businesses that are new to Facebook can find it very frustrating to get their questions answered. Phone support isn’t available, and if you don’t advertise, the best you can do is post notes in a forum and hope to get a reply.
( Chat and email support come to paid advertisers.)
Members of the council share their experiences on how they grew their business via Facebook in online forums, and at Facebook’s “Boost Your Business,” seminars staged regularly around the country. ( Some 70 are scheduled for this year.)
If you’re reading this, you’re probably not going to be selected for the council — only 40 businesses get to join yearly.
But Bess Yount, the head of Facebook’s small- business marketing, points to many tools the social network does offer, including online courses, webinars, articles, and videos.
uThe e- courses include how to create effective advertising, target audiences, use Facebook Pages to communicate with customers and use A/ B testing to fine- tune campaigns.
uVideos and articles to introduce small business to working with video for mobile, DIY style. Facebook’s “Creative Shop Mobile Studio” features tips on how to make the video look polished and professional, on a tiny budget.