In early November, Sisarina quit using Facebook as a social media platform for marketing. At the same time, I personally quit Facebook too. The reasons we quit weren't because we hate Facebook. We actually think Facebook is a fantastic platform, we just didn't think it fit us.
We tell our clients: "Don't use every social media or marketing platform. Find the ones that work for your business and your schedule."
Just today, Jay Baer wrote a post: Why You're Pissing Off Half Your Facebook Fans. When we get on Facebook personally, we want to know what our friends are doing, not what the company around the corner is selling. For me it's like having a billboard in the middle of my living room. I don't want someone shouting their marketing at me when I'm in the middle of a conversation with a friend. Subtle marketing, like the brand on the Starbucks cup I drink from, is a better marketing tool than telling your customers what you do... unless you offer me a free cup of Starbucks. Read: Consumers want 'free stuff' from social, marketers think they 'want to be heard'.
Large brands have been using Facebook really well, mostly because they are business-to-consumer (B2C) and they already have an engaged audience. These brands offer contests for free stuff, give ways for you to get discounts, etc. The most liked & talked about brands are all B2C. Read: How the 10 Most Popular Facebook Brands Rank by Engagement.
Since we quit two months ago, we've had many ask how we're doing without it. Here's our answer: We've kept up our other marketing efforts: twitter, newsletter, events, etc. We've had no slow down in business. Instead, we've had an increase. We have never been able to attribute any business we got from Facebook. It was exhausting to figure out how to engage our potential customers or referrers on Facebook because we know we should only post a few times a week at the most. Having close to 1,000 fans in 2 years, we were never sure how many people were actually seeing our posts since many users like a page and then block them from their feed.
Our social media plan for 2012:
Twitter: Our favorite!
Facebook: Doesn't fit.
Google+: Not sure yet (read: Pros & Cons of Google+ for Small Business)
Quora: Using it personally & working on a plan.
LinkedIn: Re-creating a company page. (Connect with our staff personally)
Blogging: A year of leadership posts from starting a business or non-profit and branding/marketing it
What's your plan? Do you know the reasons why you're utilizing them?
