Simple But Overlooked Facebook Marketing Strategy Wins Referrals for Businesses

A really simple but overlooked way to get referrals for your business is by using facebook. I’ll give you the exact steps on how one of my clients was able to churn out atleast 100+ referrals per day with this method (and how you can too).

Best of all – it’s free, gratis, mahala and you can use it right away.

This idea invaded my brain right before bed, so much for trying to sleep <(-_-)>. But more importantly is the question that led to the idea and not the idea itself (oh boy I’m starting to sound like Mr Miyagi from Karate Kid).

See it’s one thing to think how do I sell, how to get rich, how do I make mooooneeeeyyyy out my business – but these questions often leads us into a brick wall only to pound our soft and squishy heads on hard concrete like the many victims before us. No – we must think differently.

[Note: I’m not talking about thinking “positive thoughts” or any other wushu type of think happy pink bunnies and you’ll be rich. Children below the age of 10 think happy thoughts all of the time and they aren't raking it in. And yes The Secret is crap, thanks for asking.]

What I mean by thinking differently is to think outside of the box. Changing the thought process from:

“How can I generate more business”

To…

“How can I get more sales"

Towards...

“How can I get more referrals which will then allow me to sell”

And then…

“How can I use my salesforce to get more referrals?”

Bingo! If we can simply use the salespeople, the receptionist, the order takers, the people that interact with the customers to get a referral – we’d be golden right? So my client, Ocean Basket in Capetown (an awesome seafood restaurant by the way) have waiters that interacts with the customers (the salesforce if you will).

The customers love the food, the owner and the place. So the question is – why not ask the customers to update their facebook status and recommend the restaurant to their friends? Most of the customers are happy to do this, because they had a nice evening.

So the customers simply went to the counter (where the owner had his laptop), and updated their facebook status and then say to their facebook friends what their evening was like. This not only reinforces the enjoyable evening in their mind, but also promotes Ocean Basket on facebook for free.

And since facebook mostly consists of wall posts … the friends of the customer will most likely have a facebook wall populated by praise for Ocean Basket. This not only increases sales but branding and top of mind awareness as well.

The average facebook user has around 200 friends. And if only half of them see the status update, it means that each update is viewed 100 times per referral. So if the client gets 100 referrals per day, he gets 10 000 (100x100) people to see his brand every day.

That’s more people viewing his brand than the amount of people in my town! And if you have a salesforce or a bunch of customers or clients or an email list … Ask for a recommendation via facebook to help others realise your value and make yourself some paper.

Peace.