Should We Start a Facebook Business Page?

I have been pretty open regarding my hatred and questions about Facebook. We have never had a Facebook business page; I deleted my personal account over a year ago and have never felt more free. But...

Now that our company is working diligently on marketing the business, latching onto the power of the web and social media, I may be having a change of heart. Is it time for us to start a Facebook business page?

I openly despise, throwing barbs whenever I can, everything that is Facebook. The incessant baby bumps and people who I've talked to once pretending to be my bestee. However, my hypocritical juices are flowing, not wanting to miss out on any opportunity to help promote our business. Should I really let some, let's be honest, minor personal problems deny our business of opportunities?

These strong feelings I portend to have about Facebook over the last year and a half are all for naught if I decide to start a page. Seems pretty weak of me to cave on something not so important in the grand position of personal and business stances. However, we're not talking about abortion or gun control here.

Gasp...am I a flip-flopper?

Or does it not matter in the grand scheme of business and promoting the brand? After all, this is a personal position, ultimately hurting no one in the process. The caveat being that the company consists of my father and I only, with my dad not really caring or able to deal with any of the online promotion. Hence, much of what I put out there is very personal.

I try to use this blog as a billboard, company news site and sounding board for my thoughts and questions. The Facebook thing has been riling me for months since we started a concerted marketing effort via Adwords and now with the announcement of graph search earlier this month, I'm even more confused. Clearly, this is something I have strong issues with, but am I hurting the business in the process?

Any suggestions in our comments section or twitter regarding whether or not a Facebook business page is a must would be greatly appreciated.

 

Have You Tried Vine Yet?

I love technology and all it can bring to life or business. A few days ago Twitter ( By far my favorite social network ) introduced Vine, a service that lets you take 6 second video's easily and share them in your twitter feed. The video can them be viewed inside each tweet like so:

This was my first ever vine video tweet, whatcha think? Honestly, I haven't really gotten a chance to really play with or think about the ways we can use Vine to help promote the business. However, as more people get their hands on the app more ideas will come out.

There have been some interesting ideas vaguely floating around, but they have been more creative and centered around the technology. The coat is still fresh and tacky, not ready to hang the pictures and finish the wall.

I will be interested to see how we or other micro and small businesses use this interesting new addition to the Twitter family.

Check out the post about Vine on the Twitter blog or directly at the Vine site.

 

Fabrication Process of a 22 Gauge Support Box in Tweets

Yesterday I was tasked with fabricating a 22 gauge support box with accommodation for a filter rack and cold air drop for a furnace. The box needed to be 16" tall, 20" wide and 48" in depth, equipped with a 16" x 20" filter rack and take-off for the 12" x 20" cold air down drop. The total fabrication took most of the morning, roughly three hours and I decided to tweet out some of the process. Below is the timeline of tweets.

My Attempt at Gaining New, Local Twitter Followers

Recently I have been trying to gain a more local twitter following and figured it was time to go gorilla style. Because my sheet metal shop is located in a giant building, off the road and coupled with 50 or so other renting businesses, it's not like I can just throw a sign in the window for passers by to see. So today I came up with the economical idea to throw a sign on the back of my truck toolbox with our twitter handle and see if we get any (in the know) local twitter users. I have noticed that some local businesses follow us on twitter, but not individuals who would actually use our services and become customers.

Our business base is very local and the newspaper in the area is losing readership daily, so finding new ways to reach out and advertise is becoming difficult. I figure if we can get some people following, we can show them what we do via the twitter feed, website or blog and find those younger couples and individuals that need new furnaces, duct work and/or custom sheet metal work for their homes or offices.

We shall see if anyone actually gives us a follow or if I need to tweak my idea a bit further. Only time will tell.

Feedback is always welcome. So if you have any suggestions on how I can better my local twitter following idea, please comment and let me know.

Follow Us on Twitter @kesheetmetal