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Using Facebook as a Research Tool for Small Business

March 6, 2009

Chris LeCompte

If you thought it was hard trying to convince people to get on LinkedIn, then Facebook must be an impossibility. Well, that may be partially true.

The fact is many businesses are jumping on the Facebook bandwagon. I’m not talking about huge Fortune 500 companies — I’m talking about small businesses.

The problem is, however, that most of these businesses have no idea what to do with Facebook. I would venture to guess that they’re only on it for the ride. Everyone else is doing it, right?

So, this brings me to ask the question: In terms of business, what is Facebook good for? What uses and applications does it have for small business? How can it benefit small business?

I decided to cook up a short guide to Facebook for small business. It’s not definitive by any means because Facebook is a rapidly evolving service with new features, functionalities and uses rolling out constantly. But this guide should serve as a good starting point to get your small business or non-profit organization into the 21st century of social networking.

I’ve broken this short guide into three primary sections: Research, Implement and Measure. Today, I’ll start with Research.

Facebook can serve as an excellent source of market, demographic and psychographic research. Depending on the size of your network, you can analyze a wealth of data just by reading and looking at what people post, say and link to.

Connect with younger audiences

Facebook has been a main attraction for the up-and-coming generations. Obviously, since Facebook started out as a service geared toward college students, the average user age is pretty young. This gives you the opportunity to connect with that younger audience.

This is not to say there aren’t older generations on Facebook — there certainly are — but the core group of people using Facebook are young. I have noticed the older generations catching up, which is an interesting trend, and could serve as an opportunity to connect with those audiences as well in the future.

What can you do?

Connect with younger audiences by branding your business with your Facebook presence
Pay close attention to the younger members of your network — start building a persona of that younger user as it relates to your organization
Spend some time perusing a sampling of profiles — review interests, what their friends are saying, videos posted, etc. — they don’t have to be in your network as long as the profile is public
See what groups and pages younger users gravitate toward
Finalize your persona and use it to better relate to younger prospects and customers

Build more personal connections

The thing I like most about Facebook is the ability to build personal connections with your network. The tools exist to allow you to communicate with other people and share things you normally wouldn’t be able to share. These could be photos, thoughts (via status updates), links or wall comments. Granted, most Facebook users don’t develop strong bonds with most of their network, you just need to go the extra mile to reach out to those you don’t know as well.

What can you do?

Establish a good profile and make it personal
Connect with friends, family, colleagues, partners, clients and other people you’d like to keep in touch with
Invite those not on Facebook to start using it
Keep your profile updated and remember to keep checking your notifications
Reach out to your network and interact with your connections (via status updates, wall postings, links, private messages and chat)

See what people are up to

Use Facebook to keep informed about your connections. See if they change jobs, start new businesses, join new groups, list new interests and so forth. Facebook offers a wealth of data about your connections (should they choose to share it) that can help you develop more personal relationships.

One of the most addicting features of Facebook is status updates. Users can post in real-time what they’re doing and share it with their network. This allows you to gain micro-insight into what’s new with your connections. Sometimes the status updates can be mundane, but they can also tell you some things you otherwise wouldn’t have known.

What can you do?

Stay fresh with your connections — take the time to review profiles on a consistent basis
Don’t friend anyone you can — invite and accept connections you’re interested in developing
Log into Facebook on a consistent basis and review the news feed to see latest information from all of your connections
If you want to see more about particular connections, you can have Facebook show more updates about them in the news feed
Pay attention to status updates including the comments other people post to them
See what events your connections are attending

See who other people are friends with

In almost any case, you can see who a person on Facebook is friends with, whether they’re your friend or not. Why is this useful?

You can get a sense of a person’s social power by analyzing the quality of their connections. If one of your Facebook friends is connected with people you’re trying to reach, then it can also serve as a potential way to develop that connection. This is what LinkedIn is trying to do albeit with not so good results.

Seeing who others are connected with can also help you grow your own network. If you have mutual acquaintances and notice them in another friend’s network, you can friend request them. Just be careful not to "friend steal" or come across as someone mining for friends. You need to be genuine and build trust.

What can you do?

Spend time reviewing the connections of others on Facebook
See if there are any trends in terms of who other people are friends with
Take note of anyone who has people in their network that you might be interested in connecting with
Stay informed about new connections that your friends add

Facebook can be a powerful source of useful information. But at the same time, you want to be careful how you use that power. Don’t abuse it by being overly intrusive. Don’t use it purely for business purposes. You need to foster real connections with people who you’re truly interested in connecting with.

Stay tuned for the next part in this series: Implement.