Not only are SMBs in the Professional Services vertical heavy users of Social Media for advertising and promotion, they are highly engaged on social media, according to LCM. 3/4 reported that they track “likes” in social media, while 57.4% monitor customer comments online.

There is a big opportunity with this group to offer CRM solutions because Professional Services SMBs stay connected with their customers but only 20% say they use a CRM system. 88.0% have maintained a customer list for a year or more, while an additional 6.4% have maintained a customer list for less than a year.

The full report can be viewed and downloaded by clients of BIA/Kelsey here. This report is one of a series of drill-down reports on the findings from Wave 18 of BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor? survey. In the coming weeks we will be looking at SMBs by additional vertical categories. Our Home and Trade Services SMB report is already available. To learn more about our LCM survey of small and medium-sized businesses, click here.

Click here to purchase the Professional Services SMBs — LCM Wave 18. To purchase any of our other Local Commerce Monitor drill-down reports, check out our new BIA/Kelsey Shop.

*Professional Services vertical includes consulting, legal, architecture, and computer software. Financial Services SMBs are not included, but will be profiled in their own vertical report.

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Facebook is felt by some to have the potential to dominate SMB online advertising because of its incredibly high organic usage. But the challenge to drive even more SMB advertisers remains. The company currently reports that it has 40 million SMBs with Facebook pages around the world. Two million SMBs are paid advertisers, or five percent of its SMB page holders.

Today, Facebook unveiled several new small business support programs that it hopes will boost its SMB conversion rates. These include a series of local SMB events, the launch of self serve tools and chat and email support.

We got a hint of what was to come during the March 25 keynote by Facebook Director of Small Business Jon Czaja at BIA/Kelsey NATIONAL in Dallas. During his keynote, Czaja emphasized that Facebook can lift sales results for SMBs by a high percentage if it is added to traditional media ad campaigns.

He also asserted that Facebook does well on its own. He noted that Facebook’s accuracy for narrowly targeted online campaigns is 89 percent, or more than twice as high as the industry’s 38 percent average. Advertising on Facebook provides $8 back for every dollar invested, and a 12x boost in conversion, Czaja suggested.

While Facebook heavily emphasizes self serve for SMBs because they demand it, it is also eager to partner with agencies and others, adds Czaja. “Facebook can’t build everything itself. If there are other partners out there to build on our platform and encourage better performance, then advertisers will be able to choose to go to Facebook or an agency. It’s an ‘All-of-the-Above’ strategy.”

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The BIA/Kelsey NATIONAL show is now fully in place, with 56 speakers set to define the cutting edge in national brands and local marketing. The show takes place March 25-27 at The Dallas Westin. Just added to the program: Internet visionary Mitch Golub, who leaves Cars.com today after successfully developing it into a $1.8 Billion enterprise that has, along with AutoTrader.com, helped define all the best practices of working with the world’s most aggressive national and local marketers (the car manufacturers and car dealers.)

Also added: key brands defining the best in vertical marketing. Dental One Partners, VCA (Animal Hospitals) and Service Experts Heating and Air Conditioning have now been added to a lineup that also includes leaders from Brooks Brothers, UniGroup (United Van Lines), Rooms to Go, All My Sons Moving & Storage, El Pollo Loco, U-Haul International, Nestle TollHouse Cafe, and The Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Announced earlier: keynotes from Google’s Brendon Kraham; Facebook’s Jon Czaja; Bizhive?s Dave Walker, Kenshoo’s Aaron Goldman, Geary LSF’s Karen Traversi Kovaleski and The Weather Co’s Ryan Davis. There are also key sessions with thought leaders such as YP’s Melissa Burghardt, The Washington Post Co’s Ethan Selzer; The Dallas Morning News’ Grant Moise; Meredith Corp’s Pam Taylor; and TvB’s Steve Lanzano.

The program also marks the debut of key new BIA/Kelsey data on franchise marketing from our Local Commerce Monitor survey. And last but not least, we’ll be doing Dallas right, with two Best of Dallas receptions; a “Before the Bell” Dallas Innovator Breakfast at the Addison Treehouse sponsored by Speakeasy; Two social breakouts, including National DEMOs and Drinks and Women Leading in Local; and an After Hours Country Casino sponsored by Local Site Submit and Moon Valley Software.

Check out the full, 2 1/2 day agenda. You may register here.

Cars.com visionary Mitch Golub is set for BIA/Kelsey National

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The BIA/Kelsey NATIONAL show is now fully in place, with 56 speakers set to define the cutting edge in national brands and local marketing. The show takes place March 25-27 at The Dallas Westin. Just added to the program: Internet visionary Mitch Golub, who leaves Cars.com today after successfully developing it into a $1.8 Billion enterprise that has, along with AutoTrader.com, helped define all the best practices of working with the world’s most aggressive national and local marketers (the car manufacturers and car dealers.)

Also added: key brands defining the best in vertical marketing. Dental One Partners, VCA (Animal Hospitals) and Service Experts Heating and Air Conditioning have now been added to a lineup that also includes leaders from Brooks Brothers, UniGroup (United Van Lines), Rooms to Go, All My Sons Moving & Storage, El Pollo Loco, U-Haul International, Nestle TollHouse Cafe, and The Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Announced earlier: keynotes from Google’s Brendon Kraham; Facebook’s Jon Czaja; Bizhive’s Dave Walker, Kenshoo’s Aaron Goldman, Geary LSF’s Karen Traversi Kovaleski and The Weather Co’s Ryan Davis. There are also key sessions with thought leaders such as YP’s Melissa Burghardt, The Washington Post Co’s Ethan Selzer; The Dallas Morning News’ Grant Moise; Meredith Corp’s Pam Taylor; and TvB’s Steve Lanzano.

The program also marks the debut of key new BIA/Kelsey data on franchise marketing from our Local Commerce Monitor survey. And last but not least, we’ll be doing Dallas right, with two Best of Dallas receptions; a “Before the Bell” Dallas Innovator Breakfast at the Addison Treehouse sponsored by Speakeasy; Two social breakouts, including National DEMOs and Drinks and Women Leading in Local; and an After Hours Country Casino sponsored by Local Site Submit and Moon Valley Software.

Check out the full, 2 1/2 day agenda. You may register here.

Cars.com visionary Mitch Golub is set for BIA/Kelsey National

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Facebook isn’t often thought of in terms of “commerce,” a la retailers such as Amazon or financial institutions such as American Express, but it makes a strong case for itself as a company that “unlocks” commerce. Speaking at The CardLinx Association’s Mobile conference in San Mateo on Feb. 24, Facebook Head of Payments and Commerce PJ Linarducci joked that his “day job” is “collecting (payments) from two million advertisers a month to help them connect with their audience.” These involve payments in 55 currencies, with 800+ payment methods. One million transactions take place daily.

Is there is a clear link to commerce from Facebook’s base in advertising? Linarducci thinks it is fairly obvious. “Commerce is about information,” he said.

With placement on 95 of the world’s cellphones, and detailed profile and usage information on its users, commerce also extends the company’s broader social mission. “Payments are just a point in social; helping people get what they want,” Linarducci said. He suggested that many marketers might post offers instead of ads, if given the opportunity.

While Facebook does not appear to have moved forward with several tests involving virtual gift cards, prepaid deals and virtual credits, the company is actively exploring all its commerce options. For instance, it is currently highlighting buy buttons attached to ads, and classifieds for groups.

“The big picture is to look at Facebook in terms of its access to audiences, its payments infrastructure and as providing world class tools,” said Linarducci. And commerce is happening on the site whether Facebook is directly involved or not. “People hack around the system to make commerce on Facebook — despite us not doing anything to help them,” he said.

Facebook’s PJ Linarducci

The post CardLinx Summit: Facebook Eyes Role in ?Unlocking Commerce? appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Facebook isn’t often thought of in terms of “commerce,” a la retailers such as Amazon or financial institutions such as American Express, but it makes a strong case for itself as a company that “unlocks” commerce. Speaking at The CardLinx Association’s Mobile conference in San Mateo on Feb. 24, Facebook Head of Payments and Commerce PJ Linarducci joked that his “day job” is “collecting (payments) from two million advertisers a month to help them connect with their audience.” These involve payments in 55 currencies, with 800+ payment methods. One million transactions take place daily.

Is there is a clear link to commerce from Facebook’s base in advertising? Linarducci thinks it is fairly obvious. “Commerce is about information,” he said.

With placement on 95 of the world’s cellphones, and detailed profile and usage information on its users, commerce also extends the company’s broader social mission. “Payments are just a point in social; helping people get what they want,” Linarducci said. He suggested that many marketers might post offers instead of ads, if given the opportunity.

While Facebook does not appear to have moved forward with several tests involving virtual gift cards, prepaid deals and virtual credits, the company is actively exploring all its commerce options. For instance, it is currently highlighting buy buttons attached to ads, and classifieds for groups.

“The big picture is to look at Facebook in terms of its access to audiences, its payments infrastructure and as providing world class tools,” said Linarducci. And commerce is happening on the site whether Facebook is directly involved or not. “People hack around the system to make commerce on Facebook — despite us not doing anything to help them,” he said.

Facebook’s PJ Linarducci

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Craigslist has outlasted its challengers, and remains the platform to beat for classifieds, or “things to sell” marketplaces. eBay, similarly, remains a leader for the sale of goods – although most are not geographically oriented. Amazon is also active in that space.

Can Facebook, with its huge volume and trust networks, cut into their business? It is going to try via a new “For Sale” offering that allow users of its groups to post items for sale. Items are listed with prices, photos, descriptions, pick-up location and prices. They can also be listed as “available” or “sold” to let buyers know what’s still on the market/

The listings are currently free — and probably won’t go into the paid areas that provide the bulk of Craigslist’s revenue: apartments, cars, jobs and “personal services.” But if Facebook decides to provide a greater emphasis on classifieds, it could conceivably move into transactions (and commissions). It could also open the service up beyond its groups to have more of a geo-orientation.

It isn’t the first time that Facebook has been used for classifieds. Oodle, a large classifieds platform that launched in 2005, took over a nascent Facebook classifieds service in 2008 and focused on Facebook’s huge scale to offer items for sale to friends and groups within the service. Oodle was sold to QVC several years ago.

It also isn’t the first time that online groups have been used for classifieds. In their heydays, Yahoo Groups and Big Tent — each with hundreds of thousands of users — had active lists of classifieds. Many associations and groups currently host classifieds on their websites and pages.

The classifieds project is the latest transaction-oriented effort from Facebook, which may want to diversify its revenue beyond advertising. Facebook has been experimenting with various transaction models for several years, including tests with virtual gift cards, deals and virtual currencies. Facebook has also developed an Amazon-like capability to enable transactions on other sites by collecting credit card information on its profiles.

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The program for BIA/Kelsey National is building quickly, with many great new speakers, as well as a slew of conference “extras.” Taking place March 25-27 in Dallas, BIA/Kelsey National breaks new ground in the local ecosystem, exploring key trends and opportunities in local for national brands. BIA/Kelsey forecasts that national brands will spend $68 billion on local marketing by 2018.

More than 40 speakers are now slated to join the National program which is being co-chaired by Third Act Marketing CEO Gregg Stewart, our longtime go-to expert for national-local advertising. The event also features The GoLocal Awards, honoring the best in national brand marketing targeting local users; a Before the Bell Innovation Tour at the Dallas Entrepreneur Center’s Treehouse, which is sponsored by Speakeasy; a special edition of Demos and Drinks, showcasing some of the industry coolest technology; a Women Leading in Local session, featuring Happening’s Angela Giovine and Tina Paprone; and special evening events to be announced.

Key speakers just announced include Google‘s Brendon Kraham, Director, Mobile Global Sales and Strategy; Pricewaterhouse Coopers‘ Daniel Eckert, Managing Director, Emerging Tech; YP‘s Melissa Burkhardt, VP, Search and Yield; Valpak President Michael Vivio; The Weather Co‘s Ryan Davis, VP, Local Platform; TvB‘s Steve Lanzano, President and CEO; Mediavest‘s Jason Dailey, SVP; Operative‘s Lorne Brown, CEO; and longtime industry leaders Robyn Rose and Warren Kay.

These industry leaders join previously announced industry leaders including keynotes from Facebook‘s Jon Czaja, Director, Small Business (North America); Geary LSF’s Karen Kovaleski, President and CEO; BizHive’s Dave Walker, Chairman; and Kenshoo’s Aaron Goldman, CMO. Other speakers include Grant Moise, SVP, Niche Markets, The Dallas Morning News; Ethan Selzer, VP, Retail and Regional Advertising, The Washington Post; Rick Hanna, CEO, Mspark; Travis Arthur, VP, ReachLocal; Corey O’Donnell, VP, Brand Management, Yodle; and C. Lee Smith, CEO, Sales Development Strategies (AdMall.)

Brand leaders joining us include El Pollo Loco’s Mark Belanger; Chick Fil-A agency rep Rod Ulrich (Richards Group); U-Haul’s Elnora Cunningham; Brooks Brothers’ Mike Walker; United Van Lines’ Keith Dailey (UniGroup); ServiceMaster’s Philipp von Holtzendorff-Fehling, VP and CMO; Rooms to Go’s Rob Crigler, VP, Digital Marketing; and All My Sons Moving & Storage’s Ormondo Gomez, CFO.

Tech and Agency leaders on the podium will include Advice Interactive Group’s Bernadette Coleman, CEO; Speakeasy’s Mike Orren, CEO; Where2GetIt’s Manish Patel, CEO; LocalBizNow’s Todd Webber, CEO; Simpli.fi’s Frost Prioleau, CEO; Location3 Media’s Andrew Beckman, CEO; MomentFeed’s Robert Blatt, CEO; Placeable’s Ari Kaufman, CEO; and SOCi’s Afif Khoury, CEO.

Will we see you in Dallas? You may register here.

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Facebook today announced the relaunch of Atlas, an ad network that connects online campaigns to offline purchases across multiple devices. Atlas isn’t a new company but instead has been rebuilt since been being acquired from Microsoft last year. This announcement follow’s Facebook’s announcement of an ambitious program to match sales related data from a variety of sources to show ROI at BIA/Kelsey’s Leading in Local: SMB Digital Marketing event in New Orleans.

The platform will utilize Facebook data to track users between devices and connect online campaigns to offline results. This is an effort Facebook has been working on with its Custom Audience Tool. A Datalogix study showed that 89 percent of people who saw a Facebook ad and then bought a product in the store did not click on the ad. This uncovers an important behavioral trend for local advertisers who are increasingly critical of ROAS (return on ad spend).

Atlas doesn’t only link consumers to their Facebook accounts but with their interactions on other websites and apps.  Facebook is already equipped with a deep social data trove with 1.32 billion MAUs. This positions it to launch Atlas across both desktop and mobile and to compete more closely with Google’s Ad Sense network. Along with the Atlas’ relaunch, Facebook announced Ommicon has signed on as the first major agency partner.

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Fifty plus industry leaders will grace the stage at Leading in Local: SMB Digital Marketing Sept. 22-24 in New Orleans. We’re looking forward to a great show. Want to do some research before the event? Here’s some recent BIA/Kelsey blog coverage of the featured speakers (Click on the hyperlinks).

Acxiom: Scott Howe, CEO (Keynote, Day 2)

Alignable: Eric Groves, CEO (Future Stars, Day 2)

Booker: Josh McCarter, CEO (Scheduling ,Day 2)

Facebook: Joe DeVoy, Product Manager, Local Ads, Facebook (Social Media Shift, Day 2)

First Data/Perka: Mike Lazarro, Head of Planning (Beyond Advertising, Day 3)

ForwardLine: Craig Coleman, CEO (Cultivating SMB Success, Day 2)

Groupon: Dan Roarty, VP, Product Development (Keynote, Day 2)

Local Media Association: Nancy Lane, President (Local Media Heavy Hitters, Day 3)

Radius: Megan Austin Karlen, VP (Smart Data, Day 2)

ReachLocal: Sharon Rowlands,CEO, (Keynote, Day 2)

SignPost: Stu Wall, CEO (Beyond Advertising, Day 3)

Verve: Tom Kenney, President (Brass Tacks Mobile, Day 2)

Wanderful Media: Doug Kilponen, COO (SMB Retail, Day 2)

Yelp: Darnell Holloway, Sr. Mgr., Community Outreach (SMBs On Stage with Yelp, Day 1); Peter Curzon, Business Development ( Brass Tracks Mobile, Day 2)

YP: Jeff Federman, SVP, Digital (Brass Tacks Mobile, Day 2)

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