Your favorite Facebook businesses, please
October 13, 2010 10:18 AM   Subscribe

Please post examples of businesses, anywhere on earth, using Facebook in a very effective way. I'd very much prefer examples of businesses **you** watch and use and the reasons **you** really like how that business uses Facebook. (I'm really not interested in examples of businesses using Facebook in a poor way - I can find those without help!) I'm looking for great examples to show a business owner friend who is not quite using Facebook effectively.
posted by loosemouth to Computers & Internet (15 answers total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
EliteFTS, a powerlifting equipment/supplement company, uses Facebook very well. They post once or twice a day either about their specials, a random lifting opinion question or about a new article featured on their site.

They are one of the few companies I actually keep an eye on through Facebook.
posted by Loto at 10:31 AM on October 13, 2010


The only examples I can think of is a local restaurant that posts its specials and a local bookstore that posts its events. Any other sort of business presence on Facebook I find intrusive and annoying.
posted by gerryblog at 11:08 AM on October 13, 2010


I follow a taco shop where I grew up - not where I live now. It's called Bull Taco.

Although their tacos are delicious they almost never post about what they sell. Instead they are involved in the local community including sponsoring a surf team. So all their updates end up being essentially community updates - local community festivals and news. It is news I like to hear and of course they stay in my mind. It seems like the right way to do things to me.
posted by vacapinta at 11:08 AM on October 13, 2010


I follow a few local businesses here in Vancouver. One is the Biltmore Cabaret, a local music venue, because I go to a lot of their shows, and I like getting updates and invites to events so I don't miss something I might like. Another is Red Cat Records, a local record store, who post frequent updates about new stock, new concert tickets for sale, and specials. In both cases I'm sort of using them like I would an RSS feed. Frequent relevant content is important in such cases.
posted by PercussivePaul at 11:11 AM on October 13, 2010


A lot of local restaurants/bars here use facebook to broadcast daily specials and/or special events. I feel like that is an effective use of facebook, but it might not scale.
posted by schyler523 at 11:35 AM on October 13, 2010


Similarly, I follow local music venues on FB because they announce their upcoming shows and I'm on FB every day, so it functions as a handy aggregator, kinda.
posted by scratch at 11:42 AM on October 13, 2010 [1 favorite]


I follow a few breweries, and they will announce when new beers are released, so I know to go look for them. Much better than the monthly newsletters that they used to use. (Given that, there are other breweries that feel the need to post constantly on Facebook about nothing, and I remove them.)
posted by smackfu at 12:11 PM on October 13, 2010 [1 favorite]


My local CSA (Johnson's Backyard Garden) uses their Facebook page to provide updates on what veggies are being harvested and what's for sale at the farmer's market. They also post links to recipes for the stuff they're harvesting, as well as taking pictures of a typical box for that week. On Fridays, they often have a contest that will net the winner a free t-shirt or tote bag.
posted by Gilbert at 12:35 PM on October 13, 2010 [1 favorite]


I think that Starbucks and AT&T have been doing a pretty good job. The problem with Facebook now is that it has so many users and the quality:crap ratio for comments is way off. EG you'll get people spouting off on the AT&T page about how much they suck and how they're going to Verizon, etc.

The companies do a good job. It's the idiot commenters that make it difficult.
posted by drstein at 12:50 PM on October 13, 2010


I'm a big fan of the Life is Good line of clothing/stuff. If you're not familiar with the line, it features stuff with a cute stick figure and happy little saying such as, well, Life is Good.

Anyway, while they do use their FB to let us all know of sales, occasionally they'll pop an inspirational quote or story into their feed.

In the middle of September, they hold an annual Life is Good Music Festival to benefit their Kids Foundation . This year they streamed it live via Livestream onto their Facebook page, which I thought was awesome.

It's nice to see a company use FB for more than just "Buy stuff! Buy stuff! Buy stuff!"
posted by ladygypsy at 12:53 PM on October 13, 2010


One of my favorite cupcake shops is currently doing scary movie trivia on their facebook - every day, they ask a question, and the first five people to respond win a free cupcake. You can't go wrong with free things.
posted by kerning at 1:44 PM on October 13, 2010


Sweet Tomatoes posts updates about what they're offering and periodic coupon links. Nothing creative, but useful. It'd be better if they nuked stupid comments (from a Ruthless Marketing point of view, that is). Food Should Taste Good posts quirky things, contests, and questions. A mix of interaction, a little personality, news about the business, and occasional coupons/contests/freebies is good --- and posting neither too frequently nor too infrequently.
posted by wintersweet at 3:34 PM on October 13, 2010


My favorite facebook company page is Punch Pizza. They often have incredible coupons like free pizza nights or buy one get one free deals. It must be working for them since they keep doing it. Yum!
posted by advicepig at 6:05 PM on October 13, 2010


Not to self promote, but I have had great success with this page at Cisco. Facebook.com/cisconetworkingacademy
posted by ctreadwell at 9:11 PM on October 16, 2010


And let me add to this, I was inspired by the coca-cola page. Their model is extremely successful.
posted by ctreadwell at 9:14 PM on October 16, 2010


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