The truth is, there's a lot more to Facebook marketing than simply spamming everyone (as I'm sure you've experienced a few times yourself). If you really want to reach your target market on the social networking site, you're going to have to build things up from scratch, which isn't an easy process.
There are also a few different ways you can choose to market your business on Facebook and in this post, I'm going to give you an overview of what you can do.
1) Setup A Business Page
Recently, Facebook has decreased the value of their business pages in an attempt to bring in more revenue for the company. Previously, when you had a business page on Facebook and you created an update, this update would automatically get shared with all of the people that "Liked" (i.e. followed) your page. Now however, it only gets shared with a percentage of them and you have to pay if you want to share it with the rest.
Despite this, a Facebook page is absolutely crucial for any business looking to market themselves with Facebook. Much like Twitter, it gives you a place where you can connect directly with your clients/customers and introduce them to news, new product/service announcements, special offers and also, find out what they have to say.
You'll find that these days, all of the big brands use Facebook pages to promote their businesses (including Coca Cola pictured above), and you can make use of it too.
2) Branding And Optimization
A lot of businesses that choose to create a Facebook page will experience a limited level of success and this can be down to a number of reasons. Usually, it's simply a lack of interest and attention to their Facebook page which results in a decrease in the number of "Like's". One of the things you can do in order to make sure your page is as eye-catching as possible is to make sure that it fits in with your branding.
Consistency is a key word when it comes to branding and your Facebook business page should conform to this rule too. Take a look at the image above for the Starbucks business page. You can see that their profile photo shows their extremely well-known logo and that the timeline cover is also a Starbucks branded image. This helps with brand awareness for the company, especially as they have over 34 million "Like's".
Another thing to remember in terms of branding an optimisation is to choose a URL for your page. You can literally choose any URL you like (so long as it's available) and as you can see from the Starbucks image above, Starbucks Facebook page has the URL: facebook.com/Starbucks.
Your URL should reflect your business. If possible, try and obtain your company name as the URL but if not, you might have to be a little more inventive.
3) Attract Interest In Your Page
Once you have your business page set up, you're going to need to attract some interest in the page. Without any "Like's", no-one is going to see any of the statuses that you write. Luckily, there are a number of ways that you can attract people to your page and attract interest.One of the things you can do in the early stages is to utilize the marketing platforms that you already have in place. Do you have a website? (you should). If so, you might want to add your Facebook page to your website in an effort to convert website traffic into Facebook "Like's".
Take a look at the image above for example. This was taken from the Starbucks website and as you can see, they've included social media buttons including a "Find us on Facebook" link that takes the visitor directly to their Facebook page. By utilizing their website traffic, Starbucks will no doubt be able to convert a certain percentage of their visitors to Facebook "Like's" and at this stage, they can keep them constantly updated about products and services.
There are other methods you can utilize too. If you have an email list, you could send out an email introducing your Facebook page to your clients/potential clients and hopefully, some of them will register their interest. You could also ask your friends and previous customers to "Like" your page or possibly incorporate your Facebook URL into offline marketing methods (such as your business cards).
4) Invest In Facebook Ads
One of the ways that you can almost guarantee to generate interest in your Facebook page is to invest in Facebook ads. If you've used Facebook before, you'll notice that down the right hand side of the page, there are a number of ads. These are paid-for ads and anyone can pay to advertise on the site.
Facebook ads are pretty straightforward; you can use them to generate website traffic or generate "Like's" for your page. They are easy to set up and you only pay when you get results. For example, you might choose to pay £0.05 every time someone clicks your ad or pay per Facebook "Like".
It might take a bit of trial and error but ultimately, they can be a great way to market your business.
Conclusion
Facebook marketing can be extremely powerful for your business if you use it correctly, but it will take a bit of time and effort to do so. If you're thinking of investing in Facebook ads, make sure to keep a budget in mind and constantly check the results. You should alter your ads if they don't generate the response that you expected.You should also keep in mind that you need to keep your Facebook page regularly updated. People can click the "Unlike" button just as easily as they can click the "Like" button, so make sure you give them interesting statuses and content.
Author Bio :
Chris is a marketing enthusiast currently working for DBP (www.discountbannerprinting.co.uk), a printing company based in the UK specializing in banner and sticker printing. He has a particular passion for online marketing.
