Over the weekend I was chatting to a hairdressing friend about his decision to set up a Facebook page for his salon. While he’d taken longer than many to set up the page, he saw it as essential marketing.

What I find interesting is that I know for a fact he hasn’t set up a Google Places listing for his salon yet, and it got me thinking – Why?

The question of “Facebook Page vs Google Places page” will confront many small business owners soon, if they haven’t already been through that decision process.

Quick answer = BOTH!

In all seriousness, SMB’s do need both, BUT if you’re a time poor small business owner (which means you’re like 99% of other small business owners), then Google Places is probably the place to start.

Facebook is definitely a great place to engage with existing clients and potentially attract new clients (especially now that Facebook pages are indexed in Google), but it takes time and effort to create and build the engagement buzz.

Google Places on the other hand offers a range of immediate low touch benefits. Here’s 4 reasons why you should start with a Google Places page:

1. Firstly, when people go searching in Google for a local business, it’s more likely they’ll a Google Places listing at the top of the results page – above where the organic Facebook Page listing is likely to appear.
2. Secondly, you’re more likely (there will be a few odd exceptions) to get exposure from your Google Places page on generic local searches than your Facebook page. (e.g. Dentist New York)
3. Google Place pages are optimised business listings, with the goal being to drive enquiries to your business.
4. And lastly, it’s almost set and forget. Well that’s not entirely true, as Google Places pages perform better when you continue to optimise them with citations and reviews etc. – but even a basic Google Places page with basic contact and business info is more likely to attract business than a never used Facebook page with the same basic info.

While Facebook continues to build itself as the Search 2.0 alternative, Facebook Pages will continue to grow in importance, but for now; my money is on Google Places as your starting point.

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Imagine you’re havingsome big, high falutin’ meeting. Perhaps it’s a board meeting. Or, if you don’t have a board, perhaps it’s a management team meeting. Or, if you don’t have a team, perhaps it’s just you talking to yourself at 3:00 a.m. in the morning. Whatever mechanism it is you have to talk about important issues and make decisions, imagine that meeting. Are you imagining it? Good.

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Ever get side tracked by people asking you questions online or coming to your facebook page and posting things that just don’t seem to fit your product or business? If so, how did you handle it? Did you remember to keep a personal relationship or did you respond in a robotic manner? Continue Reading…

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I had an interesting conversation over the weekend with Marvin, who called me to discuss Network Marketing. Somehow we had become connected through Facebook or another social networking website and he thought that since we were tagged as being friends online he believed that that gave him permission to call me and try to sell me something. That’s a whole other blog post in itself, and a debate that could go on and on. My conversation with Marvin, a network marketer who is heavily involved in MLM (Multi Level Marketing) and network marketing, thought that he could sell me a domain name and website. Marvin and I talked about it, and I explained that buying a website wasn’t my thing: that it in fact was not a way to “get more leads” by simply buying someone else’s website content that they were selling. In fact, doing so is actually leaning towards search engine spam, and that simply copying someone else’s content was a no-no.

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A couple of days ago, Steven Baker of Business Week published “Beware Social Media Snake Oil,” warning that “hordes of marketing ‘experts’ are promoting the value of wikis, social networks, and blogs.”

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