As of January 2015, Facebook removed much of the unpaid content posted by businesses, both large and small, from the news feeds of their followers. It has been quite the hit for businesses that use Facebook to build their community – with that being especially right for the small business owners who often operate on tight budgets.
The Facebook of Yesterday
For years, Facebook has cited the free advertising available to small businesses as a powerful marketing tool, no budget necessary! Facebook supplied a forum for merchants to communicate directly with their clientele, a soap box and bullhorn all in one. Businesses have spent years campaigning for the coveted customer ‘like,’ all the while promoting Facebook. They have operated with the understanding that customers who have ‘liked’ their business have essentially ‘opted in’ to receive their content. These new policy changes see organic reach buried, and the once amplified voices of small businesses muted.
The Facebook of Today
The new Facebook policies dictate that businesses must pay to have their posts placed in the news feeds of their customers. However, many small businesses lack the room in their budgets to take on the extra overhead. Brandon McCormick, Communications Director at Facebook, suggests that beyond paying for ads, there are steps businesses can take to increase the visibility of their posts. The old method of asking questions of your Facebook followers no longer sees the engagement that it once did. Today, more response is garnered from news of sales, deals and products.
A Change is Coming – “Social Network, Human Required”
Businesses can still directly access their customers through their email lists, and they have services like MailChimp (which is just one of many useful tools for entrepreneurs) within easy reach. But, sadly, those methods rely on avoiding spam folders and hoping that your subject is strong enough to spark interest.
Research from Morgan Stanley shows that 91% of adults who own mobile phones keep them within arm’s reach. Small businesses whose success is reliant on their customers seeing their messages are turning to different technologies that can deliver this messages directly to their customers’ phones.
At LoyalBlocks, we deliver push notifications directly to consumers through their phones opening the door to a new, direct, more reliable merchant/consumer social network.
With LoyalBlocks, businesses create their loyalty club and offer rewards and specials to the customers who join. It is similar to ‘liking’ a business on Facebook, but the business owner is given a direct link to their customer. The rewards offer the customer encouragement to come in, and more importantly, come back (unlike the different relationship via Facebook).
LoyalBlocks has taken the ease of communication offered by social media and further simplified it by automating the process. For example, merchants who use our platform can set birthday rewards that get delivered to their customers’ phones automatically. Merchants can even set a push notification send to their customers as they enter the business – even Facebook can’t do that. At the end, what it really comes down to is that LoyalBlocks goes above and beyond “regular social media” into the realm of human interaction. The best part is that all customers have to do to redeem the rewards is to get off of their computers, out of their homes, and into an actual brick and mortar business.
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*This insightful guest post was provided by Cailin Sandvig. Cailin is the Content Manager at LoyalBlocks, which is a good fit as she likes words and has always wanted to wield power over them. Make sure to stay in the loop with what is going on with LoyalBlocks by liking them on Facebook or following on Twitter.
A big thanks to LoyalBlocks – be sure to check it our for your business or your tell your favorite local coffee shop about it.
Feature image: mkhmarketing
