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Using Facebook To Build Your Business
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/business/smallbusiness/12guide.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&src=tw
This is really clever:
Aim at Potential Customers Only
Some guys use Facebook to find single women. Chris Meyer used it to find women who are already engaged. Mr. Meyer, a wedding photographer in Woodbury, Minn., had had little luck with traditional advertising. A full-page ad in a bridal magazine generated zero leads and a trade show yielded only four bookings, barely covering the cost of his booth. But Facebook proved a digital bonanza. Mr. Meyer aimed at women ages 22 to 28 who listed their martial status as engaged in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. He estimates that he has spent about $300 on Facebook ads in the last two years and has generated more than $60,000 in business. He says about three-quarters of his clients now come to him through Facebook, either from ads or recommendations from friends.
Because Facebook gathers, even encourages, this sort of status update it's trivial for him to advertise to that demographic. That's a good example of thinking creatively about how to reach your market. If I had anything to do with the wedding business I would have already stopped reading this post to go on Facebook and do the same thing.
Unfortunately this doesn't work as well for all businesses. There isn't, for example, as easy a way to reach people with car problems.
-B-