Growing a client base with Facebook takes a little more effort than posting witty status updates a few times each day. Keep the company’s web presence professional and current. No company makes an impact by reaching out to customers once or twice a week. Since Facebook is live 24/7, use the free marketing tool often.  If you’re looking for some creative tips on keeping your social marketing efforts going in the right direction then keep reading!

Create a Buzz

Use Facebook like a news-alert system. Create posts about developments, progress and milestones reached. Sure, it’s a bit egotistical, but anyone who searches for the company online will see that it’s doing something. It’s a start-up making progress. Go ahead and post a link to the company’s new website or Twitter profile. Moving forward is the goal. Use online auto-posting services to streamline the Facebook updating process.

Have Contests

Encourage Facebook visitors to interact with the page. Contests directly call for participation. Use a service or product from the company as the prize. Once in the hands of a consumer, word of mouth marketing begins. Plus, contest winners will click on the “Share” button to spread the winning news, which in turn shares the company name on many more Facebook walls.

Share the Love

Get in the habit of sharing links to articles, photos and blog posts that relate to the business. These public posts are searchable by Google, and bring traffic to back to the business Facebook page. For example, a start-up bakery might post an article from the Blueberry Grower’s Association website about the nutritional value of blueberries — the newest pie flavor offered by the bakery. If the Growers find the article posted on the bakery’s Facebook page, they may create a link from the company’s website, to the bakery. On the Internet, related businesses scratch each other’s backs.

Be Human

The company is a start-up, not a multinational corporation. Talk about the local weather, economy or issues facing the area. It adds personality and locality to the venture. Just keep the talk professional. If the business offers bicycle rentals along the coastline, let customers know about the beautiful weekend weather forecast. This quick post might just plant a seed and encourage customers to stop by the shop and rent a bike. After all, everyone wants to take advantage of nice weather.

Post Pictures

When a new product debuts, snap a few pictures. Seeing a product is more appealing than a cleverly crafted paragraph of advertorial prose. Posting pictures of your employees working, creating new products, speaking at conferences or working with customers makes the business real. Take the process a step further and tag employees in the photos. Make sure the links go to a professional Facebook profile, not a personal account littered with weekend party pictures or political rants.

Using Facebook stretches the meager marketing budget of most new businesses. The free marketing tool gives the company a public identity, allows for interaction between potential customers and employees, and over time helps the company establish credibility.

Doug Pray‘s a documentary film maker who’s made the movies Scratch, Surfwise and Hype! among others. He has a new movie out called Art & Copy which I’m excited about. Check out the trailer. I was happy to see George Louis in it… he’s the ad giant who created the slogan “I want my MTV!”. Anyway, really looking forward to seeing this.

You might have heard of Rosser Reeves if you have read “Ogilvy on Advertising” or Bob Bly’s “The Copywriter’s Handbook“. Both of these I’ve read recently in which Rosser is mentioned multiple times.

Funny story on how I got my copy…

So about a week ago I was going over my book “The Copywriter’s Handbook” by Bob Bly where he mentions USP (Unique Selling Proposition) which Rosser coined while working for Ted Bates Agency. I decided to look up Rosser on Amazon.com to see if I can find his book “Reality in Advertising” and I did except copies were kinda pricey, starting at $175. Looking at the cool image of the book cover I noticed that it said below it “Customer image from Mockingbird Books” and immediately clicked on the link because that’s the name of my uncle’s rare book business.

I emailed him right away and asked if it was him and sure enough it was. I was totally surprised. I knew he sold rare books but never thought I would stumble upon a book I wanted on Amazon that he was selling. I told him I was interested in the book and he told me I could have it free of charge. How awesome is that?!

Not only did he send the book he included another not so famous book (but cool nonetheless) “How to Advertise” by Kenneth Roman & Jane Mass. It does have a small foreword by David Ogilvy though.

Ok, so I had to go back through my books on copywriting and advertising to figure out exactly where Rosser Reeves was mentioned and I found what I think is a brilliant quote in “Ogilvy on Advertising” by Rosser. In the book “Reality in Advertising” Rosser says”

I’m not saying that charming, witty and warm copy won’t sell. I’m just saying that I’ve seen thousands of charming, witty campaigns that didn’t. Let’s say you are a manufacturer. Your advertising isn’t working and your sales are going down. And everything depends on it. Your future depends on it, your family’s future depends on it, other people’s families depend on it. And you walk in this office and talk to me, and you sit in that chair. Now, what do you want out of me? Fine writing? Do you want masterpieces? Do you want glowing things that can be framed by copywriters? Or do you want to see the goddamned sales curve stop moving down and start moving up?

That pretty much sums up what advertising is supposed to be about…

Here’s Rosser Reeves on Unique Selling Proposition:

Each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer. Not just words, not just product puffery, not just show-window advertising. Each advertisement must say to each reader: ‘Buy this product and you will get this specific benefit.’

The proposition must be one that the competition either cannot, or does not, offer. It must be unique-either a uniqueness of the brand or a claim not otherwise made in that particular field of advertising.

The proposition must be so strong that it can move the mass millions; i.e., pull over new customers to your product.

Fun fact: Rosser helped oversee the M&M’s “melts in your mouth, not in your hands.” campaign which is still in existence.

So a personal Thank You goes out to my Uncle Mike who was so kind as to send me those books! Thank you! And if you happen to be interested in rare books at all you can find a link to his inventory on his home page at http://www.mockingbird-books.com/

Stay tuned for a “Reality in Advertising” book review…

If you want to pick up your own copy of Reality in Advertising they are going for about $130 on Amazon.com right now.