Online Marketing

Facebook, the way forward for local business

When a small Irish business makes effective use of Facebook then I think it is worth a mention. One that really caught my attention lately is Greystones Cabs.

I happen to live in Greystones. It is a relatively small area, not really large enough to support a taxi rank (although there is one).  Getting a step ahead of the competition is not an easy proposition.

The Greystones Cabs Facebook page is a stroke of genius.  Because Greystones is a reasonably small area where lots of people know each other, once the initial connections were made the rest happened very quickly, and it continues to grow.  Growing a network is not any use if it doesn’t work for you though.  The beauty of facebook for Greystones Cabs is that all the connections they get are likely to be customers.  Why connect otherwise? That’s a pretty high conversion rate!  There are some other things that make it really work….. top of the list must be mobile phones.  Everybody brings them out with them and nearly all of them now allow you to connect to facebook.

With facebook for mobile you get the option to call a number when you visit the page.  Anybody out who needs a cab can just look up their facebook and dial Greystones cabs directly from the facebook page.

They could have stored the number in their phone, they could have a card in their wallet.  Maybe they do, but the sheer novelty of being able to do it from facebook will gain Eugene O’Rourke’s Greystones Cabs business.

What about those that are office bound?  Facebook is only a click away.  What’s more, the likelihood is that most people connected to Greystones Cabs are also going to have friends that are connected.  Psychologically that builds a trust.  ”If lots of my friends use him then he must be good/reliable”.

Business’s are also linking in with him.  For companies like Daisychain Florist, it makes sense to be connected.  It put’s their name out there to all the people that Greystones Cabs are connected with.

I should point out that Facebook is not the only thing that Greystones Cabs has been getting right.  As search on Google for “Taxi Greystones” shows them in pole position on google maps (Google Local).

I think that there is a bit of a conception out there that social media is for big business only.  That is absolutely not the case.  Greystones Cabs is a prime example of what a little thought and effort can achieve using social media like facebook.

Facebook is the largest social media site in Ireland.  It is nice to see Wicklow companies leading the social revolution!