Facebook is to marketing what space was to man – a vast frontier which is dangerous, yet lucrative. There are untapped resources in both places, virtual and astronomical. To be able to take advantage of marketing on Facebook, you have to know what it takes to find success, and this article explains it all.
The key to all marketing is to understand why you’re doing it. What is your end goal? Once you have that figured out, you can more easily create a plan to bring in exactly who you want to turn from Facebook like into customer. So start brainstorming today – what are you marketing?
While you want to advertise your products, this should not be the only content that is present on your Facebook page. You should share any information that you feel is relevant to your business. If people think that making money is your only goal, they will be hesitant to work with you.
Do not hesitate to share links to other sites on Facebook. If you come across an article or a video your audience will be interested in, think about sharing it on Facebook. It is best to avoid sharing links to website you are in competition against or you could lose customers.
Think about making a group rather than a page. Facebook groups will encourage potential customers to establish their own community. You can utilize a group and a page in tandem to keep users interested and interacting.
When thinking of information to share with your followers on Facebook, try to keep them relevant to what is going on with your business or industry. If your company sells auto parts, you should make posts about auto parts. Posting photos of cats or other irrellavant topics will ensure that people unfollow your page.
Post regularly on your Facebook page. Don’t just create your business page, make several posts the first day, and then stop posting for several months. Not keeping your page updated frequently shows your audience that you don’t care that much. If you need this Facebook page for your business, then stick to some kind of posting schedule.
Do not build any apps on Facebook that require more than three or fours steps to get started. The more complicated something is, the less likely people are to want to deal with it. If someone can use one of your apps right away, they will be more likely to sign up.
Take advantage of the Facebook Places feature. This will allow people to let others know when they are at your place of business. If you don’t link your places page with your main page, people will be sent to a generic page. You want them to end up on the page that has the correct branding, so link the pages as soon as possible.
Don’t forget that Facebook has paid advertising. This is in fact where the website really makes its money. While its true that many Facebook users may not even see the content due to ad-blocking software, you can’t ignore the potential power in being able to create customized demographic lists to target with your content.
Organize a contest and offer a prize to the contestant who gets the most votes. The subscribers who enter your contest will ask their friends to vote on their entry. This is a great way to get more visitors to your page and perhaps get some additional subscribers for your campaign.
Don’t relay too much on automation. It can be very tempting to automate your Facebook posting. More posts are better, right? That’s not always the case. People can sense an automated post, especially if all you post are links to stories from around the web. You won’t be building any sort of engagement between your audience and your brand.
Visitors should be able to identify the theme of your Facebook page right away. Choose a profile picture and a cover page related to your theme and write a short but efficient description of your brand on your profile page. This is very important if your brand is not recognizable yet.
Use a large picture on your business’ Facebook page. You want your brand to stand out when someone stumbles across your page, and a large image is the best way to accomplish this goal. The largest image you can use can be 200pix wide x 600pix high, so be sure to put that size to full use.
Keep in mind that a lot of Smartphone and iPhone owners have access to Facebook on their phone. You could share link to your mobile website on Facebook or encourage your subscribers to share pictures taken with their phones, for instance while visiting your store or when testing your products.
If you’re not immediately successful, don’t get discouraged about using Facebook as your marketing strategy. Facebook is no different to any other business, you will not receive marketing greatness overnight. You must be patient; it takes time to get things rolling.
Keep an eye out for those looking to stop you from marketing through Facebook. Facebook is notorious for enemy commentary. Always remove spam immediately, and reply to negative posts if possible – if they are just rude or offensive, remove them too.
Your customers should be included if you’re going to be celebrating a milestone for your business on Facebook. Send a short “thank you” message to your friends list and make sure to announce a celebration on the main page. This will build your relationship with them.
With all of these tips in mind, prepare to begin your Facebook campaign planning process. Sit down and get to work creating goals, figuring out your target audience and deciding why you’re doing what you want to do. Once you have the answers, you’ll be ready to reach for success.
