Paul Dunay is an award-winning B2B marketing expert with more than 20 years’ success in generating demand and creating awareness for leading technology, consumer products, financial services and professional services organizations.
Paul is the global vice president of marketing for Maxymiser a leading web optimization firm, and author of four “Dummies” books: Facebook Marketing for Dummies (Wiley 2009), Social Media and the Contact Center for Dummies (Wiley Custom Publishing 2010), Facebook Advertising for Dummies (Wiley 2010) and Facebook Marketing for Dummies 2nd Edition (Wiley 2011).
His unique approach to marketing has led to recognition of Paul as a BtoB Magazine Top 25 B2B Marketer of the Year for 2010 and 2009 and winner of the DemandGen Award for Utilizing Marketing Automation to Fuel Corporate Growth in 2008. He is also a finalist for the last six years in a row in the Marketing Excellence Awards competition of the Information Technology Services Marketing Association (ITSMA), and is a 2010 and 2005 gold award winner in Driving Demand.
Buzz Marketing for Technology, Paul’s blog, has been recognized as a Top 20 Marketing Blog for 2009 and 2008, a Top Blog to Watch for 2009 and 2008, and an Advertising Age Power 150 blog in the “Daily Ranking of Marketing Blogs.”
Paul has shared his marketing thought leadership as a featured speaker for the American Marketing Association, BtoB Magazine, CMO Club, MarketingProfs, Marketing Sherpa, Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG), and ITSMA. He has appeared on Fox News, and his articles have been featured in BusinessWeek, The New York Times, BtoB Magazine, MarketingProfs and MarketingSherpa.
Paul holds an Executive Certificate in Strategy and Innovation from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Computer Science from Ithaca College.
You could also set up a free website on WordPress. I believe WordPress has a few advantages over Facebook in this case. You could easily transition the existing site to your own domain when you’re ready (they have a downloadable software). They have a ton of totally customizable themes, or you could do your own HTML, so you’re not stuck in a particular template. I believe Facebook is pretty restrictive, but correct me if I’m wrong. Also, people who are not on Facebook might be more comfortable with a WordPress website since you don’t need to be a member to comment. That said, Facebook is probably simpler to get set up. My main concern as a business owner would be the ability to keep and transition all my website content. (Can you do that with Facebook sites now)?
@ Tracey
no you would have to scrape every pages of its content – put it in a word doc to back it up
yeah its not perfect – but it certainly sounds like they are moving in a direction that could make it a major platform play
Hey Paul,
Facebook is only one way of driving traffic but I would still have a decent business website to build a list. You don’t own the traffic on facebook but you do own your own list and website. Blogging as Tracey suggested is another method of driving traffic but you still need a main lead capture page.
One can get lost in all the ways of social media. Pick 2-3 to start with and then outsource the rest as you build your business.
Facebook is only one way of driving traffic but I would still have a decent business website to build a list. You don’t own the traffic on facebook but you do own your own list and website.
Blogging as Tracey suggested is another method of driving traffic but you still need a main page to capture leads.
One can get lost in all the ways of social media. Pick 2-3 to start with and then outsource the rest as you build your business.
If you don’t get Facebook or like it, outsource it to someone who loves it and loves your business or works for your business.
I mean, if you had an employee who loved facebook and you added to his job description to be on facebook for the company, I’m sure he’d get excited! The trick would be to lay out definite parameters and guidelines!
Everyone needs a website – Facebook & other social media sites are blocked at work for many workplaces. Do you want to miss out on people who may want to call you from their desk while on the bosses dime?
You wouldn’t go into war with only your infantry, would you?
Social Media and Web Sites are all components of a marketing strategy; cohesively implement all of them to reach your targeted audience and your competitors don’t even stand a chance. It might be a gamble to think that one presence can pick up the slack for the lack of others.
On a side note, having facebook be THE place for your online presence isn’t too far a stretch for the imagination.
FB is restricted to what you can do with it. The notion that it would replace websites is quite far fetched. I think they complement each other. How much of a brand can you build on FB? How much control over interaction do you have on FB? It is still ways out to think of it as a replacement. If you are tracking hits and conversion, or want to optimize your conversion, do you have access to the FB platform? NO..
Who needs a website? Anybody who’s serious about building their company and brand. What kind of Mickey Mouse company would use Facebook as their only web presence? IMO that’s like having a Geocities or Google Pages website and using [email protected] for your email address. Ultimately a website gives you total control, from top to bottom, of your company’s online interface. And the best websites today do things, they’re not just online brochures. Facebook is a great option to exploit but it’s a mistake to make it your only option.
@ Nigel & Kene
thanks for commenting – and you are right – a professional company (not a Mickey Mouse company) would want a full website for the reasons you suggest
I was thinking more Local Business (restaurant, dry cleaner, music teacher, tutoring etc) – dont forget the "long tail" of business
Paul – I recently worked with a client where we have established their new business presence online through Facebook and LinkedIn as initial steps so that they could start connecting with people confident that information about their services and products could be found online without having to wait for their website to be built.
This was especially important for them as they were focusing on online education and were setting up a business having left a very large corporate due to restructuring in the current economy. So for them it is imperative to get up and running fast.
We also purchased a domain name and then mapped it over to one of the tabs on their Facebook page so this URL could be used on their business card.
Personally I would never recommend that we build our presence online on a hosted service – all too often I have seen services change, delete accounts and even close down.
However the opportunity that Facebook pages presents us is terrific both from connecting to a huge yet targeted community if we are smart about how we use them and the opportunity to be found online through the pages being ranked well in search engines.
I look forward to reading your new book.
@ Krishna
Excellent story – thank you for sharing with the group!
Facebook is indeed a valuable tool and I believe that it is important to understand its functions and capabilities. While I wish the author success with his book, I don’t think that Facebook pages meet the needs of all companies. There is just a lack of professionalism if Facebook is your sole representation on the Internet. On the other hand, having both a Facebook page and a website can enhance your credibility because you show that your company is accessible to all types of consumers, be they Facebook users or just web surfers. “Facebook Marketing Optimization” is definitely worth looking into, but I do not believe it will ever fully replace traditional advertising and marketing strategies.
I thought this was going to be another long boring blog post, but I was pleasantly suprised. I will be posting a backlink on my blog, as I am quite sure my readers will find this more than interesting.
@ Irish – must be the Irish blood in me – thanks for commenting!
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@farmville – thanks for the comment!
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