“You Don’t Ask – You Don’t Get”

Facebook has become one of the fastest evolving social media platforms which causes a lot of heartburn for small businesses. As a marketer and a social media professional I consume newsletters, get daily announcements, follow social media gurus and interact in Facebook daily to stay on top of the changes. I can’t keep up myself and it’s what I do. Imagine how the “Mom & Pop” retailer or the solo practice physician feels. I help both kinds of services and I’ll tell you – they’re frustrated. They are busy trying to make a living and keep up with their own industry. They don’t have time to keep up with the latest social media innovation.

“See First”

That said – Facebook recently launched a new feature that has been over-looked and could be a big help for small businesses. If they have created the kind of page that has raving fans they can use it to their advantage. As a Facebook user – the individual not the business page – you can select 30 people or Pages to “see first” in your news feed. That means we finally have the option to prioritize which 30 friends, family members or businesses whose updates we don’t want to miss. Thirty does not sound like a big number but when you think about who your “can’t miss” friends are, do you really have 30? It’s probably more like 10 or 20.

So here is the opportunity for a small business. Create an image that makes your page fans aware of this new option and request that your fans put you on the “see first” list. Will all your fans? Hardly. But it may be the ones who care the most about your business and are most likely to share your content. Therefore, it behooves you to create content that is worthy of being in someone’s “see first” list. What have you got to lose? Remember, “you don’t ask, you don’t get.”

Try it and let me know what happens.