How My Boomer Father Did Facebook for Small Business Right

To the claim that Millennials have a unique claim to the realm of digital marketing, I would submit my 54-year-old father as evidence of how Facebook can be effectively used for small business.  By way of context, he owns a woodshop and carving studio in my New England hometown, and he creates hand-carved wood signs for homes and businesses.

As soon as he became aware of Facebook, he decided it would be a useful thing for his business.  At this point he usually posts to Facebook before he posts onto his website, and frequently gets requests for quotes in his Facebook inbox.

How did someone who grew up in the 60s and 70s get Facebook's marketing value so quickly?  Easy.  He realized that core thing about Facebook, that it's a virtual representation of our real world connections.

• He posts pictures of students, with their finished products, and tags the pictures.  Easy, no-brainer formula, and perfect for the older facebookers, who tend to have fewer friends, reflecting closer relationships.  Old Ernie carves a whale, my father photos and tags him, and then all of Ernie's friends like the picture and comment how impressed they are with his work.  BAM!  15 comments * ~60 friends each (calibrated for the older audience) = reach of 900.
• He uses Facebook to interact with other local businesses.  Our town is chock 'a block with antique stores, little book stores, bakeries, and other small businesses.  By reciprocating likes for likes, and comments for comments, the local businesses are reflecting their real-life connections and expanding their reach beyond Main Street.
• Prior to shipping, he posts a picture of his finished product and tags the customer.  Happy customers see their signs, and (perhaps not realizing that maybe a message would be more appropriate medium), comment on the post thanking my father for his work.  Their comments boosts the post in their friends' walls, who in turn comment on their friends' new sign, again expanding reach.

If you asked my father about any of the concepts we've discussed in our course, he would be unlikely to explain in the language of reach and ROI how he came up with his Facebook strategy.  But by simply realizing that Facebook is a community just like Main Street in our small town, and by being as authentic on Facebook as he is in real life, he's leveraged the tool as a great marketing asset for his small business.