What would it mean to your business if you instead developed a clear Facebook Marketing Strategy and then put it into action with precision? The potential marketing opportunity on Facebook is huge for many small businesses, and quite possibly for yours!
Do not let Facebook replace your other forms of marketing. Your customers ARE spending time somewhere, though, and you should capitalize on that. You want to connect with them and increase the time they spend with your brand.So if they are on Facebook, and if they are on Facebook A LOT, You owe it to your company to develop a plan to interact with them on Facebook.
1. Decide What Your Facebook Page Goals areAs with any marketing platform, to maximize returns for your business you want to understand why you are doing the marketing in the first place, define your marketing goals, and develop a strategy. Your audience may value Facebook as a customer service vehicle for your business, in other cases, as an appropriate sales source. In other cases, your fans may just want to "talk" with you and feel a part of it all.
2. Create Custom TabsWhen you start your Facebook Page for your business, your Page has a standard set of "tabs," including a Wall (where posts and comments are published) and an Info tab (with general information about your company). You can extend the capabilities of your Facebook Page by creating custom tabs. For example, the Rural Animal Welfare Resources Facebook Page includes a "Donate" tab, making it easier for the non-profit organization's supporters to fund their cause.
3. Edit Your Tab Order Your Facebook tabs appear in vertical order on the left side of your Page. Right under the list of tabs is a small "Edit" option. You can use this to customize the order of your tabs (outside of the Wall and Info tabs). This is useful if you want a certain tab towards the top, or all the way at the bottom of the list so that it stands out more.
4. Post More Than Sporadically We've all seen them... Facebook Pages where the business was overly excited when setting up their Page, with 7 posts the first day, and then no more posts the following three months. Just as with any marketing for your business, if you are going to do it, then do it well. By ignoring your Facebook Page for months at a time, you send a message to your audience that you may not be able to give them the customer support they need. Decide if a Facebook Page is something your business needs, and if the answer is yes then stick to some type of posting schedule.
5. Get Their Info Giving your audience something of value in exchange for a registration or sign-up can be valuable to your business, as it enables you to have an ongoing conversation with those who have expressed interest. It also gives you a direct email marketing list, if you decide to add that to your marketing strategy down the road.
6. Create a Connection If someone takes the time to comment on your Facebook Wall, answer them. Think about it, if someone calls your business, you answer the phone and you answer their questions. Same with email. Same with a form submission from your website. And it's the same with Facebook.
7. Go Beyond Your Page Facebook now enables you to navigate through Facebook "as a Page." Therefore, you can post to other Facebook Pages that you "Like." (Note, this is only for Pages for which permissions have been configured to allow third-party posts.) Just be extra careful with this, as you should post to another Facebook Page ONLY when you have something of true value to add. And be very respectful of the Page owner. DO NOT SPAM. It's just bad marketing.
8. Use It as a Content Platform Use Facebook as a publishing platform and as a channel for extending the reach of your content. If you write a blog post, update your Facebook Page and let the world know about it and have access to it. Not everyone is going to visit your blog everyday. The more that you can write once and publish in multiple locations, the more likely that your valuable content is going to reach your audience.
9. Make it "Shareable" What can you offer your audience that's of value? That they would want to tell their colleagues/friends/family about? Facebook is all about sharing and interacting with others. If you truly focus on giving as much value to your prospective customers as possible, they will return the favor by letting others know and providing their own network with the opportunity to experience such value. For example, this could be an eBook, an exclusive offer, a cool competition, etc. It can even be just an awesome picture worht sharing.
10. Make Some Content Exclusive Dangle something of value to your prospective audience but make them "Like" your Page in order to get it. They win. You win. Everyone wins. For example, many big companies who host a freebie or giveaway offer, require that you "Like" the page in order to enter/get the free item.
11. Use Facebook Insights Facebook Insights is a set of analytic tools that tracks use and interaction with your Facebook Page. It's available free to every Page administrator. Use the Insights data by keeping track of how people are using your Page. What content is of most interest? What is just not resonating? And then adjust your Page activities accordingly.
12. Be Identifiable As with any marketing, your campaign is sure to be more successful, the more integrated you make it. Use the same logo, icons, banners etc across all of your social media. Become recognizable through your Page!
13. See if Your Vanity URL Is AvailableBefore you launch your brand presence on Facebook, you need to make sure that your vanity URL is available — and that it’s simple and easy to remember.
14. Use a Third-Party Platform to Distribute Social ContentCopying and pasting content, logging in from one social media network and logging out from another can be a time consuming task — but it doesn’t have to be. If you’re looking to push content to Facebook and other social networks, you can benefit from using a tool like HootSuite, which allows you to publish once and distribute everywhere.
15. Find Out When and What to Post If you’re looking to see what your fans engage with the most — and when to post it on Facebook— you can utilize a third-party service called Edgerank Checker.
This time-saving application grades your fan page and determines the following key factors:
*Most effective day of the week to post content
*Popular keywords that drive engagement
*What type of media is best for your audience
16. Provide Local ContentNobody wants to visit a Facebook Page with an enticing offer, only to learn that it's not available in their region. Nor do they want to land on a brand page where all the content is in another language.
Here are some quick strategies for providing localized content:
*Give your fans an incentive to visit your business by providing them with a recent, active “walk-in” promotion in their area.
*Allow users to recognize that you are connected with their location by providing details and assets specific to where they are.
*Geotarget your posts even if you don’t have multiple locations — you wouldn’t want to offer a walk-in special to your fans in New York if your business is in L.A.!
17. Create a QR Code for Your PageSetting up a QR code for your Facebook Page is a quick, simple and effective strategy for small or large businesses to use. QR codes can be leveraged on napkins, menus, business cards, billboards, magazines, brochures and other forms of marketing materials. Esponce is one of the most powerful QR code platforms on the market, and it offers a free tier that’s typically geared to small businesses.
The process takes no more than a few minutes to set up and allows you to: *Create a custom QR code
*Embed your logo into the QR code
*Link your QR code to a dynamic URL — so you can customize and change the URL if you decide you want to later drive users to your website instead of your Facebook Page.
You’ll have the ability to view analytics so you can see how many people have scanned your code, their location and the type of smartphone that scanned the image.
18. Buy Facebook AdsBuying Facebook ads is a wise, cost-effective solution that can help increase your brand's visibility throughout the Facebook platform. Most people don’t realize how easy they are to set up or that you can buy in with a small ad spend. A budget of $50 per month would be sufficient for a small business to make some waves.
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