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"The thing that we are trying to do at facebook, is just help people connect and communicate more efficiently." Mark Zuckerberg,
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| A Facebook page for your karting center: less easy than it seems
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Have you ever heard somebody say with a satisfactory tone: "My business has a Facebook page". At first sight, it sounds cool. But pay attention, it isn't easy as many people think to act in a professional way on Facebook and other social networks.
Don't get me wrong, I'm NOT telling you that you should not be present on social networks. I strongly believe that it can be very profitable for your business if it's done in a proper way.
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| Be prepared to invest some time in it |
| Let's be honest: the worst thing you can do is to create your account and then don't update it often enough. People will be disappointed when they arrive on your Facebook group or Fan page. By consequence, it will give them a negative feeling about your company.
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| Don't use it only to sell |
| If you need to do promotions, several tools are available online: your website, SEO, e-mailings, online advertisements, etc. Use these tools for that purpose. Facebook is a medium to interact with your registered and potential customers in a casual way. You should offer them other content on top of what they can see through the traditional channels.
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| Accept that you are not the only who controls your image |
| A professional account on Facebook allows people to speak badly about you too. This happens when they are unsatisfied about their race, if they didn't find the staff friendly enough or whatever reason they can come up with. Don't panic when this happens! This is a multi-directional platform: you can communicate towards customers, customers towards you and customers between each other. Take this opportunity to go into dialog.
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| Good practices |
- Use a Facebook Page instead of a Group.
- Pick the right name. You cannot change it afterwards. Ever.
- Invite your close contacts to 'Like' your page (employees, regular customers, suppliers, etc).
- Update your account often. It is ideal to update it once a day or several times a week.
- Select the person(s) who are will be responsible to take care of it.
- Use your Page for your promotions and events, but also to post pictures of the 'behind the scenes', birthday party of the staff, the new company car, new staff members, pictures of the last event, etc.
- Answer angry customers with politeness and respect. Acknowledge your mistakes and announce ways of improvements. Your 'ambassadors' (good customers) will help you and defend your business. A bad comment can easily be turned into an opportunity to improve your company image.
To conclude, I strongly advise you to use Facebook as an online marketing tool. It's more than just a hype, it's a habit. If Facebook was a country, with more than 500 million users, it would have the 3rd biggest population worldwide after China and India. Define your goals, check out the capabilities and go for it.
If you want to push your Facebook strategy and improve your customers' experience, go for the iNet Social Networks which will easily assist you to spread your brand name on Facebook and Twitter. If you don't have a Facebook page, you can use this application just as well. Everything is done automatically, so you can get 100% of the benefits as well.
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| Interview of João Casanova: new staff member (software developer)
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| 1- João, tell us a little bit about you.
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Ever since my childhood, I've always been around computers. With my father being in the IT business, and my family eventually owning and running a computer store, it came as no surprise that I went on to study Computer Sciences at the Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Science and Technology Faculty of Lisbon's New University).
At the end of my studies, I had the opportunity to do a traineeship at B&MI SMS-Timing, and I took it. During my traineeship I had the privilege of working closely on different projects with the rest of the team, the last of them being the
iNet Social Networks.
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| 2- What did you learn from this work placement?
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| It definitively gave me a clearer view of how the business world works. I learned a great deal about new technologies too, as the company uses different resources than the ones I worked with at college. The idea that a strong team philosophy is essential to develop a quality product also became clear to me throughout the traineeship.
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| 3- How are the technologies used at the company different from the ones you studied at your university?
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| While my university focuses on open source technologies (Java, mySQL), the company takes advantage of the partnerships it has, as a Microsoft Gold Partner and as a Firebird Sponsor, to get the most out of their technologies. While they are different from the ones I learned throughout my studies, there are enough similarities for the learning process to go smoothly. In the meanwhile, I was able to witness the advantages of these technologies firsthand, and how they allow us to deliver better software.
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| 4- What does your job consist of?
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| As I am a software developer, that will be my main job description. I'll help develop the next generation of karting and entertainment center software, and I'll help build the new products the company will bring to you. Of course, I'll also help improve the existing ones, starting with the recently introduced iNet Social Networks. |
| 5- What is your opinion on the karting market?
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| The karting market, like any other market, can still grow. But it will hardly grow by itself. Having decent timing software at this point, is just not good enough. The karting centers need to find a way to attract more and more customers, and to keep the customers that they already have. They can do it through the traditional methods (advertisement, special events, promotions...), or they can innovate ( targeted e-mailings), using social networks...). Either way, B&MI SMS-Timing is the ideal partner to help your business grow. |
| 6- You are the 3rd foreigner working for B&MI SMS-Timing. What is your view on the team?
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| The team is becoming more and more international, and that's a strong advantage for B&MI. There's a long tradition of having international trainees placed in the company. That by itself has the big advantage of everyone bringing their own culture, ideas, knowledge and working methods to the table. Actually having them employed reinforces that philosophy. This creates the conditions for the company to reinforce their position and improve the quality of their service in foreign markets. |
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| B&MI SMS-Timing at 2 trade-shows in Europe!
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| From the 6th to the 8th of October 2010, Hannes and Jan will welcome you at our booth at EAS 2010 (Euro Attraction Show), Rome, Italy. www.eas-expo.org
If you prefer to visit us in Poland, Henning and I will be glad to meet you at Surexpo, Warsaw from the 14th to the 16th of October 2010. www.wigor-targi.com
Come to our booth and get your goodie bag! And of course, it will be a great opportunity to have a face to face meeting during which we can explain you our concept.
Kind regards
Benjamin
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