4. There are three ways to set up your new or existing WebBusiness on Facebook.
a. Pay a Pro a lot of money. The good and the bad.
i. You have to find the right "partner". And there’s a million or so to choose from. It will take longer to find the guy you are looking for than you think it should, and it will be two steps forward and one step backward.
ii. You have to learn enough of their technical vocabulary first in order to have an intelligent conversation or you will pay them in cash or personal time to get you up to speed.
iii. The right "partner" is the one who understands your business better than you do. My experience for over ten years working with the rocket scientists of the Web is consistent. They all understand their businesses better than mine.
iv. Do not expect business advice from the website, technical gurus. They only understand the bell and whistles of websites, which is what they sell and, for the most part, only what to do things on the cutting edge. What good are the bell and whistles if your business fundamentals are weak or if your budget is limited? A great looking website that doesn’t do what you need it to do is an expensive failure. There is still only one way to measure your performance: sales and profits, not clicks, not views, and certainly not pizzazz.
v. Expect to consistently feel like you are working for them, instead of them working for you.
vi. There is one more thing, back in the dark ages of business, people, mostly men, travelled around in cars and trucks selling. Every hotel for business people had rooms to sleep in, a restaurant to eat in and a bar/lounge to relax in. Nevertheless, there was an old saying among road warriors, which was in fact quite true.
1. “Don’t eat where you sleep.
2. Don’t drink where you eat.
3. Don’t sleep where you drink.
4. NOBODY does all three well.”
The WebBusiness version of the same truth is:
1. No software package does everything just like you want to do it. We use three to five different programs to produce high quality pictures and videos for a client. They all do all the same basic things, but each one does one function better than the rest.
2. The same is true with the people whom you may choose to support your WebBusiness. They are all specialists and they can do most everything. At the same time, there is one thing that each of them does better, easier and faster than the rest.
vii. Rule #1: Facebook is different. Even if you have been successful on the business side of the web for ten years, Facebook is different. In setting up your Facebook business presence, you probably need to approach the process from the viewpoint of a raw, but enthusiastic, rookie.
If you have resolved these issues, your budget matches your consultants’, and everybody has a common set of expectations about the work that will follow, then you probably have found the right guys. Proceed with optimistic caution and an open checkbook.
b. Do it yourself or inhouse. The good and the bad.
i. Probably won’t be any faster than option 1, if for no other reason, than the learning curve. This too will be two steps forward and one step backward.
ii. You will be in total control throughout the process, except for one thing. You will ask a lot of people you don’t know very well, I lot of questions by email. As the boss, you have become used to getting answers immediately most of the time, and setting deadlines for answers the rest of the time.
iii. Get over that. Email is a blackhole. Maybe you will get an answer, maybe you won’t. Maybe the answer you get will be an answer, maybe it will just create three more questions. Maybe your answer comes back today, maybe in three day, maybe you never hear from that person again. Think about how your current email system treats your customers and think about how you would like to be treated.
iv. When you are looking for answers, especially on search engines, you are going to be distracted by lots of tangential things that may help you in related areas, but have absolutely nothing to do with the immediate problem you are trying to solve. Learn to use and practice using bookmarks until saving interesting and potentially useful distractions becomes unconscious.
v. You will have to learn to filter out the obvious, the subtle and the invisible biases that everybody else has in their comments and solutions because they are trying to sell you something they do or they have.
vi. Some people will promise and not deliver.
vii. You will be able to build your WebBusiness as your budget allows without having to explain your budget, or lack thereof, to various strangers.
viii. In the end, you can do this inhouse. Its certainly not impossible. In fact, if you like playing on your computer, you might have a lot of fun.
In the end, the best long term solution will evolve into being some combination of these two approaches for most businesses. As you build your web-team, the most important member will be a generalist, not a specialist, who understands your business as well as you do, who understands the big picture and who can help you find the right players to accomplish your goals and objectives.
Which side of the field you start on probably has to do with time and money, the relative value of the two and whatever else is competing for your attention? It is your choice of headaches.
Recommendation #2: Find and hire a field general who understands your business and the web as soon as your budget allows. If you pay $200 per hour for one or two hours a month, it could be the best bargain you find.
a. Pay a Pro a lot of money. The good and the bad.
i. You have to find the right "partner". And there’s a million or so to choose from. It will take longer to find the guy you are looking for than you think it should, and it will be two steps forward and one step backward.
ii. You have to learn enough of their technical vocabulary first in order to have an intelligent conversation or you will pay them in cash or personal time to get you up to speed.
iii. The right "partner" is the one who understands your business better than you do. My experience for over ten years working with the rocket scientists of the Web is consistent. They all understand their businesses better than mine.
iv. Do not expect business advice from the website, technical gurus. They only understand the bell and whistles of websites, which is what they sell and, for the most part, only what to do things on the cutting edge. What good are the bell and whistles if your business fundamentals are weak or if your budget is limited? A great looking website that doesn’t do what you need it to do is an expensive failure. There is still only one way to measure your performance: sales and profits, not clicks, not views, and certainly not pizzazz.
v. Expect to consistently feel like you are working for them, instead of them working for you.
vi. There is one more thing, back in the dark ages of business, people, mostly men, travelled around in cars and trucks selling. Every hotel for business people had rooms to sleep in, a restaurant to eat in and a bar/lounge to relax in. Nevertheless, there was an old saying among road warriors, which was in fact quite true.
1. “Don’t eat where you sleep.
2. Don’t drink where you eat.
3. Don’t sleep where you drink.
4. NOBODY does all three well.”
The WebBusiness version of the same truth is:
1. No software package does everything just like you want to do it. We use three to five different programs to produce high quality pictures and videos for a client. They all do all the same basic things, but each one does one function better than the rest.
2. The same is true with the people whom you may choose to support your WebBusiness. They are all specialists and they can do most everything. At the same time, there is one thing that each of them does better, easier and faster than the rest.
vii. Rule #1: Facebook is different. Even if you have been successful on the business side of the web for ten years, Facebook is different. In setting up your Facebook business presence, you probably need to approach the process from the viewpoint of a raw, but enthusiastic, rookie.
If you have resolved these issues, your budget matches your consultants’, and everybody has a common set of expectations about the work that will follow, then you probably have found the right guys. Proceed with optimistic caution and an open checkbook.
b. Do it yourself or inhouse. The good and the bad.
i. Probably won’t be any faster than option 1, if for no other reason, than the learning curve. This too will be two steps forward and one step backward.
ii. You will be in total control throughout the process, except for one thing. You will ask a lot of people you don’t know very well, I lot of questions by email. As the boss, you have become used to getting answers immediately most of the time, and setting deadlines for answers the rest of the time.
iii. Get over that. Email is a blackhole. Maybe you will get an answer, maybe you won’t. Maybe the answer you get will be an answer, maybe it will just create three more questions. Maybe your answer comes back today, maybe in three day, maybe you never hear from that person again. Think about how your current email system treats your customers and think about how you would like to be treated.
iv. When you are looking for answers, especially on search engines, you are going to be distracted by lots of tangential things that may help you in related areas, but have absolutely nothing to do with the immediate problem you are trying to solve. Learn to use and practice using bookmarks until saving interesting and potentially useful distractions becomes unconscious.
v. You will have to learn to filter out the obvious, the subtle and the invisible biases that everybody else has in their comments and solutions because they are trying to sell you something they do or they have.
vi. Some people will promise and not deliver.
vii. You will be able to build your WebBusiness as your budget allows without having to explain your budget, or lack thereof, to various strangers.
viii. In the end, you can do this inhouse. Its certainly not impossible. In fact, if you like playing on your computer, you might have a lot of fun.
In the end, the best long term solution will evolve into being some combination of these two approaches for most businesses. As you build your web-team, the most important member will be a generalist, not a specialist, who understands your business as well as you do, who understands the big picture and who can help you find the right players to accomplish your goals and objectives.
Which side of the field you start on probably has to do with time and money, the relative value of the two and whatever else is competing for your attention? It is your choice of headaches.
Recommendation #2: Find and hire a field general who understands your business and the web as soon as your budget allows. If you pay $200 per hour for one or two hours a month, it could be the best bargain you find.
Upcoming:
The Culture Clash between Business and Facebook
The Culture Clash between Business and Facebook
