The Middleman: Who He is and What He Can Do For You

The middleman, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is an intermediary or agent between two parties; especially : a dealer, agent, or company intermediate between the producer of goods and the retailer or consumer. What does that mean for your business?

Most business’ today have a website, if you don’t, you have been living under a rock and are probably still there because no one can find you, because you have no website. The website is the first thing a customer will visit before reaching out over the phone, email, etc. A website gives you credibility that you are an actual, active business and that you have something to share.

There are several ways to get traffic to your website: email, SEO, Google Adwords, word of mouth, QR codes. But what about Facebook? You are probably asking yourself, how can that be when most people are going to Facebook to keep up with their friends, not to find my website. Or are they?

Yes, Facebook’s number one function is to provide people a means of connecting/keeping up with their friends. But it is also designed with the consumer in mind and their search function is incredible. The process goes something like this, so you see an ad on Facebook from a company that sparks your interest, you click and are taken to their Facebook page, you see that they have thousands of fans – validity runs through the mind and then you think, if they have this many fans, they must provide a killer product/service. But I don’t want to read about the product or service on Facebook, so I need to find their website. BING, BAM, BOOM —–> you have a middleman.

Facebook has just become your launching pad, your foundation, your community (thank you Amy Porterfield). It is where Fans get to know, like and trust you. Facebook is where your fans become quality leads. It is then up to you and your website to take that lead and turn them into a prospect eventually turning them into a customer.

Just because your teenage daughter uses Facebook for keeping up with her friends, doesn’t mean that your mother in law can’t use Facebook to find her knitting kit from Knit Happens (love the name, and used to live here so had to rep them a little) and then go to the website and ultimately be a lifelong customer. Facebook is for everyone and it shows because everyone is on it – 1 billion and counting.

I encourage you to think of Facebook differently and how you can utilize it to become the middleman for getting traffic to your website.