Facebook offers a multitude of tools for brands to raise awareness and successfully market themselves to new consumers. Facebook pages, groups and communities offer three different approaches, but how do you know which is best?
The central focus of a Facebook group is to function as a place for members to connect, share and collaborate. Groups are great for building awareness around a variety of ideas. The most significant feature behind Facebook groups is the ability to make them limited to specific networks or “invite only.”
In contrast to Facebook groups, which center on organizing around topics or ideas, Facebook pages are a tool for companies and public figures to share and interact with Facebook users. Essentially, Facebook pages are a company’s official profile and an excellent way to spread awareness of a company and its products. Community pages aren’t necessarily the best option for a company or organization because they center on topics, not brands or companies.
A brand or organization looking to establish a presence on Facebook should look into Facebook pages and groups. So, how do you decide which is best for you? Take a look at these features and identify which are most important to you:
1. The ability to mass message users, enact membership restrictions and send users event inbox messages.
2. The ability to support applications, use engagement metrics and targeted updates.
If the qualities of group one seem more applicable to you consider creating a Facebook group. Facebook groups promote collaboration and interaction while helping to foster brand awareness and loyalty. If the aspects outlined in group two are more relevant consider creating a Facebook page. You can set up a Facebook page for a brand or company and use it to engage with users as well as to keep them informed about promotions and other company happenings.
Still not sure whether a Facebook page or group is best for you? Perhaps you should consider using both. Since Facebook pages and groups serve different purposes and meet varying needs, it is okay to establish both, as long as you remember to make them unique. Suppose you are trying to establish an online presence for ABC Company. First, create a Facebook page where you can broadcast official information to other Facebook users. Next, decide on a sub population who you think would enjoy and benefit from the ability to engage and discuss with one another. For example, you could create a group for ABC employees who volunteer their time with a given community program. The Facebook page allows you to constantly relay events and updates to fans while the Facebook group allows a specific segment to interact and collaborate given their common interest.
Facebook groups and fan pages are easy, inexpensive, and effective ways to raise awareness of your brand or organization. Use these tips to help navigate through the many options available and you are on your way to building your online presence. Facebook recently enhanced the Facebook Group capabilities, here is a link to learn more about Facebook Group changes.
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Georgia has spent her 30 year career at the intersection of photography and digital technology. As an author, speaker, trainer and social media and photography evangelist, her perspectives entitled “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Friends…or Enemies” will appear in print in the upcoming book entitled The Relationship Age, by social media guru Mari Smith. Georgia is a frequent guest blogger for our professional photography lab.
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Get a jump start on the Holidays! Order our 2009 or 2010 pre-printed Holiday Collection Sample Sets and receive 29 different cards per set printed with our images. This will give you a complete collection of all styles, paper types, and designs (not all sizes and card types are provided for every design).
It is simple! Just visit our home page and click on the 
Dallas, Texas
This is a guest contribution by Georgia McCabe: Georgia spent 30 years as a Sr. Executive in the computer and photo industry at IBM, Eastman Kodak and Fujifilm. As a driving force in conceiving and executing breakthrough approaches to the photo printing, sharing and delivery market place, she literally “changed the rules” for a category undergoing massive technological change and re-invention. She is a certified social media strategist, and is a market and branding consultant helping businesses utilize the tools and power of social networking. Visit Georgia’s blog.
Professional photographers have always had a love-hate relationship with proofs. Back in the day, we had no choice but to take the risk of giving paper proofs to the customer, but they were small and most were way too watermarked to be of any real use. Some even sold the proofs to customers for a minimal charge, since they were of little use to anyone else after the final sale.
As photographers we understand the special place that high quality photography enjoys and rely heavily on the fact that consumers don’t like to throw good pictures away. We often leverage this during the sales process with the not so subtle “oh doesn’t he look great here” or “I really like this one!” Lens and negative based package printers are ancient history, but many portrait photographers still try to up-sell by sticking to single pose pricing for print packages, ignoring the fact that digital printers really don’t care how many files are used to build an order. (more…)
Today we’d like to offer a guest blog post, written by Teri Ritter, of Teri Ritter Photography. Teri has been in business for 10 years in San Diego, CA and Dexter, MI, specializing in families, seniors, and babies. Teri is also a Marketing Consultant and enjoys sharing marketing ideas and plans which boost the bottom line for professional photographers everywhere. Today, Teri talks to us about finding inspiration.
Everybody is very busy this time of year and burnout is running rampant. For the next couple of months it is pedal to the metal. However, I challenge you to take the time to find some inspiration to make this a brighter time of year. Not so nerve wracking, but more fulfilling for you and your business.
1. Start an inspiration notebook TODAY.
You have old notebooks sitting around. Just put a label on it and christen it My Inspiration Notebook. Now, when you look through a magazine and see an image that touches you or inspires you, tear it out and throw it into your inspiration notebook. Do the same with quotes, cool marketing pieces, and anything that you see, touch or feel that inspires you. It all goes into the notebook. Periodically (at least once a month) sit down with a cup of coffee or tea and peruse your inspiration notebook. Challenge yourself to incorporate methods, products, sets, and lighting into your world. (more…)
Motion Images – We Have a Winner!
There was another great response to our photo contest this month! We asked you to capture motion, and you didn’t disappoint. Here are the submissions to our motion photo contest:
image by Sue Potter
image by Sue Potter
image by Jay Carey
image by Jeremy Martin
image by Tina Daily
image by Donna Carter
image by Laurel Riffey
image by Elizabeth Smith
image by David Dudley
image by April Yost
image by Jim Knox
image by Ginger-Kathleen
image by Jim Knox
image by Judy Pristash
image by Judy Pristash
image by Judy Pristash
image by David Dudley
image by David Dudley
image by Jay Carey
image by Jay Carey
- image by Laurel Riffey
image by Ginger-Kathleen
image by Jessica Gwozdz
image by Tim Perroud
image by Susan Wolfe
image by John Patrick
And now, I’d like to announce the winning image!
image by David Dudley
Congratulations, David! Send an email to me at rachelf@hhcolorlab.com to claim your free garden flag prize!
Did You Know – Duplicate Orders
This is the second of a new series of posts, designed to save you time and headaches when it comes to doing business with H&H Color Lab. Today, we tackle the problems that can arise from possible duplicate orders.
Did you know that we spend a great deal of time verifying whether or not orders that error as Possible Duplicate Orders are truly duplicate orders or valid new orders. Our operating system checks two things in your order to determine if it is a possible duplicate: the order number and order description. If the order number and description are identical on two orders an error is generated and the order is routed to our errors queue.
A member of the Process Improvement Team (P.I.T.) must determine the validity of the order by comparing images and items ordered to those of the initial order received. The amount of time spent on this verification is enormous. It can also delay the processing of your order by several hours.
Please help reduce the instances of these errors by keeping H&H customer service informed of any email address changes so you always receive your emailed order confirmations. Checking these confirmations can help you save time by not duplicating the order upload process. Our website is also a good tool for checking your order status. As always, feel free to call one of our friendly customer service representatives if you have any questions.
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