Artist Chantel Olson didn’t join Facebook to make sales.
Along with her mom, Pennie Ogden, the Sioux Falls artist runs a business known as Art Moms. Several years ago, Olson posted a few pictures to their Art Moms Facebook page, and people responded immediately wanting to buy them.
Soon, they were using the page for regular online sales, reaching more than 4,800 fans. Then this winter, just as suddenly, their photos and links quit going out to people. Olson would post something and maybe 300 people would see it.
“From the start with Facebook, there’s always been constant changes, but this was a huge contrast,” Olson said. “It motivated me to figure out what was going on, to figure out the method of the madness here.”
                     Toward the end of 2013, Facebook changed the rules significantly for businesses that had come to depend on the social media platform as a free way to interact with customers, according to Jonathan Sellers, a social media strategist who speaks and blogs on the industry for a national business audience. The social network intentionally “throttled” the number of people who could see business page content, while offering more paid ways to connect with users.
               
              “Facebook made a really valid point months ago … stating that they wanted to focus on being a social platform where people shared social things, so they were forcing businesses to be more aggressive in the sense that you need to pay for your presence,” said Tina Beal, owner of Social Bug, a local creative branding firm that emphasizes social media.
                “We’ve seen the traffic decrease, but the traffic that is still there is really involved, and we’ve seen the conversation still going,” she said. “It’s just a different approach.”
While the change was frustrating, it forced many businesses to take a serious look at what they were doing with social media and more clearly define their strategies, Sellers said.
For many businesses, social media means more than Facebook. Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and other emerging players are being used. They’re powerful tools, experts said, as long as they are used with a purpose.
                     “Every social network is not for every business, but I don’t think that going forward any business can afford to discount the power of social media, and the reason is consumer behavior,” Sellers said.

Businesses stay connected

              Before getting into the clothing business, L Couture Boutique owner Lori Dykstra had worked in computer programming and understood the power of social media marketing.
When she decided to open an online store, she used demographic-targeted advertising on Facebook and postings on Twitter to reach the people she knew would appreciate her products. Her business grew both nationally and locally to the point where she opened a storefront location last month in Sioux Falls.
             With more than 8,000 followers on Facebook and a relaunched Twitter account and website, she said getting people to look at her pages is just part of the game. She regularly has people come in with pictures of looks or outfits they’ve seen on her social media account and are looking to buy.
“I love when I go on Facebook and see that 1,000 people saw a photo, but the question is did they buy anything,” Dykstra said. “You need to know your audience.”
                Scott Meyer, whose marketing company 9 Clouds Inc. consults with businesses on digital marketing and teaches those techniques to business owners, said he encourages businesses to realize that they don’t own the social media tools they are using.

             “You’re playing in someone else’s playground. The goal should always be to send people back to the space you own, whether it’s an email list or a website,” Meyer said.
Beal’s firm also emphasizes a strong web presence.
“The one thing we focus on is building from the foundation up, so we emphasize your website needs to be your everything,” she said. “If your website is solid and up to date and mobile responsive, we can build up.”
            With all of the new tools available, once of the most effective ways to get out the word about a company remains the old-fashioned e-mail blast, Meyer added. People don’t have to read what a business posts on social media, but they have to take the time to delete the messages from their inbox.
The most successful social media efforts are interactive and use multiple channels, he said. Businesses do best when they can present themselves, with their unique voice, directly to customers, but results show what works.
                “You have to be testing and adapting,” Meyer said. “You can read news stories all day about what is getting interaction and what is most effective.”
At Meyer’s suggestion, Elegant Mommy owner Shelly Gaddis is trying something new.
Her baby and maternity store often found a good response on Facebook, with followers used to regular Friday night special events, “flash sales” or games. Gaddis said she wasn’t really affected by the Facebook changes because her customers were used to coming on the page regularly to find out what was happening on Fridays.

                “We need to make sure that we’re reaching new people besides those who are always tuning in on Friday night,” said Gaddis, who is experimenting with sales on the photo site Instagram. “Social media is how moms communicate, but I have to continue to reach those new moms.”
For Sioux Falls convenience store chain Get N Go, Facebook remains one of the most effective direct communication tools, said Darren Miller, area store supervisor. Miller is responsible for posting daily content on the page, which has more than 8,600 followers.
              “We really look carefully at posts that people want to engage with or click on and share with a friend,” he said. “People’s time on Facebook is precious, and we’re proud when they want to spend a little more time with us.”
               Miller said he works hard to make sure postings are “authentic,” a mix of sales and posts that give customers a little bit of a behind-the-scenes look at the people and the stores. He also never deletes negative posts or complaints by customers, instead responding to them right away.
“We’d certainly still be in business if we were not on Facebook, but it’s just one more way to build that personal relationship with customers,” Miller said.

What works best

                     Social media users respond to content that is interesting not just promotional, said Miranda Ochocki, owner of Beyond Social, a local social media company. Customers are looking for more than advertising on social media platforms, she said.
         
              “It’s about being different and really putting out good vibes,” Ochocki said. “I tell people, ‘Don’t always post about yourself.’ Things that are positive and engaging, people will like.”
For Downtown Sioux Falls Inc., an organization that both promotes businesses and publicizes events, social media is a big part of the overall strategy, said Brienne Maner, communications and membership manager. Monitoring member businesses’ social media accounts helps Maner keep on top of what is going on, and she then shares those sales and happenings on the DTSF Facebook, Instagram and Twitter feeds.
                       “Everyone has their own communication vehicle, so we’re trying to provide different ways to get that information out,” said Maner, who describes her role as both promoter and “aggregator” of downtown news.

              The organization has begun to experiment with paid Facebook posts for downtown events, and she can see that the paid content is reaching a bigger audience. But other free options, such as Twitter, also have a big following, she said. The downtown organization’s Twitter page gained more than 2,000 followers in less than 18 months.
              “There’s never a lack of content for us because there’s so much stuff happening,” Maner said. “It’s worth it for us to spend the time on it because we see it gaining traction out there.”
For biofuel producer Poet, social media is not a sales tool in a traditional sense but instead is part of the communications strategy of a company that is trying to get out the word about its industry and employees, and help drive public policy, said Matt Merritt, director of public relations.
The ethanol company, which has 27 plants across the region, uses its Facebook page, Twitter account and photo sharing on Flickr for a variety of reasons, Merritt said. Construction progress updates are easy to share with photos. Facts about ethanol or notes about interesting things being done by employees can be shared on Facebook.

                “It’s a grass-roots tool, a way to reach people who are already active online,” Merritt said. “We recognize there are a lot of people out there who support biofuels, and it’s another means to get them the tools they need to speak about biofuels confidently and competently.”
In the past year, a Poet public relations employee has worked to make the company’s Twitter page, which is followed by more than 2,800 people, consistent and more active, Merritt said. The company uses it not only to release information, but also to interact with the public, lawmakers and others related to the energy field.
                 “We have had some lively discussions around biofuels,” Merritt said. “We deal with energy and agriculture, which are both very, very important issues for the county, so people want to ask us questions, and we’re OK with that.”

Part of larger strategy

             The message for all businesses is to never rely on one platform for all their marketing needs, Sellers said. The national social media expert expects other social media outlets to follow Facebook in using a “pay to play” system in the coming years.
“It was very cool to get free advertising, but it’s going away,” Sellers said. “You just can’t focus on one thing, to put all your eggs in one basket.”
            
Businesses that get established on the existing social media platforms now likely will benefit in future years, Meyers said. New forms of social media are increasingly building on existing systems.
            “If you don’t know how to use social media, Facebook, Twitter, it will be hard to do whatever the next thing is,” he said.
          
             Twitter is emerging locally as a larger focus for businesses, Beal said.
“We have a lot more conversations going on about Twitter in part because there are a lot of celebrities” on it, she said. “We still put a lot of emphasis on LinkedIn for our professionals. It’s still a great platform to network and build connections and use as a referral point. There are really good players out there with Instagram and Pinterest and Foursquare, but locally Facebook and Twitter are the biggest.”
               Since the Facebook change-up, Olson has done her best to learn how to better draw attention to her postings. And Art Moms is using targeted advertising spots to promote an upcoming boutique event.
            Olson said that she sees social media as a challenge – and she’s up for adapting to the change.
“When we started this, we did it with zero fans, and we’ve built it over the years with giveaways and contests and lots of interactions with the customers,” Olson said. “Facebook is still the first thing I turn on in the morning and the last thing I turn off at night. No matter how much our reach has declined, it’s still a tool that’s pretty amazing.”

http://www.argusleader.com/story/news/business-journal/2014/05/14/businesses-adapt-social-media-changes/9052219/