Workshop in cooperation with IHK and Digital Hub Facebook solicits regional firms in Bonn

BONN · Facebook on tour in Germany: The internet giant wants to make social networks more attractive for firms. 375 people took part in a workshop in Bonn.

Chat, post, like and comment - for private users Facebook is basically a communication and information platform. That marketing and advertising content can easily and precisely be spread there too, is well known amongst businesses. How to profit from Facebook services - that was the subject of a workshop at the Kameha Grand Hotel on Monday.

Under the „Taking off digitally“ theme, the chamber of industry and commerce (IHK) Bonn/Rhein-Sieg, the Digital Hub Bonn and Facebook were invited to a workshop. Similar events took place already in Essen, Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich: The internet giant is touring the republic to advertise the opportunities of social networks.

In Europe, Facebook has 376 million users, 280 million of those are active on a daily basis. With every European user the company generated 8.60 dollar (7.54 euro) turnover in the second quarter of the year. But other companies should earn through that medium too.

„Facebook marketing doesn’t only work for large corporations, who can afford to run their own marketing department with their own community managers for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and co.“, said Sophia Tran of Digital Hub Bonn. Particularly for small companies Facebook offers great potential, according to the marketing expert: „In almost all sectors the gateway (to marketing success) is possible with little or no money.“ Using social networks for marketing purposes is „certainly a balancing act“, said IHK spokesperson Michael Pieck, in regard to data protection questions - an issue that Facebook has been criticised for before. „It is important that companies deal with these matters consciously, that they are aware of the responsibilities, and that they recognise potentials and talk directly with Facebook rather than about Facebook. That’s why this event is important.“

The 375 participants had five experts at their side, from the German Facebook headquarters in Hamburg and Berlin, as well as specifically selected entrepreneurs, who reported on their own marketing success with Facebook.

One of them was Ulrich Glemnitz, who owns a vegan restaurant called „Bunte Burger“ in Cologne. He joined the social network in 2007, first only as a private person, then also for business purposes. „We started off with a food truck, and only advertised our offers and dates via Facebook and we quickly generated a huge fan base.“ His advise for newcomers: Use your rookie mistakes to learn from them, collect experiences and „invest purposefully“, so plan with your advertising budget in a very detailed way.

Mikaela Ioannou agreed. When she founded her online fabric store duliebstes.de, she availed of the Facebook marketing strategies from the start: „I had professional experience with it already and knew how it worked. And it did work.“ The running of the fabric studio is now done by employees, while she passes on her expert knowledge about social media and Facebook marketing as a coach.

For IHK vice president Jörg Haas one of the biggest opportunities in Facebook marketing for companies is the market segmentation „right down to the individual customer“: „Companies can see who they are facing, what shopping habits emote has, which hobbies he has and in what kind of financial situation the potential customer lives. And they have to learn how to use these potentials.“

(Original text: Thomas Heinemann; Translation: Mareike Graepel)

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