B2B Social Media Case Study: American Express Facebook Big Break for Small Business

Posted by: Krishna De | Posted on: May 23rd, 2011 | 1 Comments | Posted in: Facebook, Free resources, Research, Social media, social media marketing, Social networking

If you are a small business in the US you may have been aware of the American Express OPEN and Facebook collaboration – the “Facebook Big Break for Small Business,” which is a national contest designed to help transform the way small businesses use Facebook to connect and engage with customers.

Business owners can enter to win an all-expense paid trip to Facebook headquarters for a two-day “boot camp” and a US$20,000 cash prize by submitting responses to a short questionnaire describing how they would use the competition’s winnings to improve their business.

Ten semi-finalists will be selected and will compete in a final round of judging where OPEN Facebook fans will be asked to vote for their five favourite small businesses to win the trip to Facebook and cash prize.

And even if you are unsuccessful in winning the competition, the experience from the Facebook training sessions will be documented and appear on OPEN’s Facebook Page and OPEN Forum as well as content being available in the form of “How To” videos where Facebook answers small business owner questions on how to effectively market on Facebook.

Results of the American Express Small Business Monitor in the US recently reported that for marketing their businesses, more entrepreneurs are using social media to attract new customers (44%, up from 39% six months ago), specifically:
• 35% are using Facebook
• 15% are using LinkedIn
• 10% are using Twitter
• 8% are publishing a blog
• 8% are using YouTube
• 2% are using FourSquare.

I had the opportunity to ask  Rosa Alfonso of of the American Express Open programme some questions about the programme

Krishna: What inspired America Express to co-host this competition with Facebook?

Rosa: Last year, American Express and Facebook teamed up for the first-ever “Small Business Saturday”. We are continuing our collaboration to educate small business owners on the benefits of customer engagement in social media settings and provide them with real, tangible tips on how to do it effectively.

Krishna: What are some of the things that the judges will be looking for when they review the entries to get them to a short list?

Rosa: Submissions will be judged on:

• Entrants commitment to their business and growth;
• Overall social media need;
• Energy and enthusiasm for small business.

Ten small business semi-finalists will be selected by a panel of judges that includes representatives from AMEX and Facebook, and Guy Kawasaki of Alltop and John Battelle of Federated Media.

Krishna: This competition is only available if you are in the US and BC – are there plans to do something similar across the globe

Rosa: There are no plans to take this competition global at this point in time and this competition is available in the United States.

There is still time to enter the competition if you are in the US or BC with the closing date being 9am ET on 23 May 2011.

If you are looking for ways that B2B companies are using social media to connect with their customers the American Express OPEN programme may be a programme you can get inspiration from.