People spend more than seven hundred billion(700 ) minutes monthly on the Facebook platform, that is according to Facebook's own statistics. Absolutely everyone, seems to be using Facebook now.Too many companies merely configure a Facebook Page, randomly post to it until they get bored, and then leave it to gather dust for months at a time. It is essential that your company explore ways that your audience segments are using the social networking platform and develop a corresponding plan.
The potential marketing opportunity on Facebook is tremendous for many businesses, and quite possibly for yours! It's not that Facebook replaces your other forms of marketing. But your prospective customers are spending time somewhere. And you want to connect with them and increase the time they spend with your brand. And so if they are on Facebook, and if they are on Facebook a lot, it behooves you to develop a plan to interact with them on Facebook in a way that adds value to their experience.
So, it is much better for you instead to developed a clear Facebook Marketing strategy and then executed on it with precision? Right?
Here are ways to better Facebook Marketing for your business:
* Facebook Ads - Paid advertising in Facebook is a great opportunity for your business. In that, Facebook enables you to target your audience for your ads in many ways. You can specify the age group, gender, and geographic area of those that will see your ads. Not only that, you can specify the specific interests of your audience as broadly or as narrowly as you'd like. You can set your bid price and campaign budget, and test as many ad images, headlines and ad copy as your heart desires. And if you decide that your campaign is just not working, you can stop the campaign immediately, thus lowering your risk of overspending on your campaign.
* Create A Facebook Page - Your audience may value Facebook as a customer service vehicle for your business.In other cases, it might be an appropriate content or news source. In other cases, an appropriate sales source. In other cases, your fans may just want to "talk" with you and feel a part of it all. Align your Page to your strategy, and define associated success metrics.As with any marketing vehicle, 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 corresponding strategy.
* Create Custom Tabs - You can extend the capabilities of your Facebook Page by creating custom tabs. When 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.
* 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 especially 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.
* Post Regularly To Your Page - 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 just don't care. So decide if a Facebook Page is something your business needs, and if the answer is yes then at least stick to some type of posting schedule.
* Let Them Sign - Let Everyone who "LIKE" your page sign up.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. So, hold a competition or freebies, or simply offer a sign-up form for something of value in return.
* Update Regularly - Facebook Page Administrators are able to send messages to everyone who "Likes" their Page. So when you have something of value to let your fans know about, send out an update and make them aware. Just be very prudent with the frequency of this technique. Send stuff to your fans only when it really matters.
* Comment Back - 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.
* Navigate To Other Facebook 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.
* Share - What can you offer your audience that's of value? That they would want to tell their colleagues 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 deliciously awesome content.
* Check Facebook Insights - Facebook Insights is a set of analytics that tracks usage and interaction with your Facebook Page. It's available free to every Page administrator. Leverage the Insights data by seeing how people are using your Page. What content is of most interest? What is just not resonating? And then adjust your Page activities accordingly.
* Integrate - As with any marketing, individual efforts are rarely the most effective way to go. Instead, integrate your marketing wherever possible. Twitter feed, email newsletters and Facebook Page. Your campaign is sure to be more successful, the more integrated you make it. Figure out how your Facebook Page can best serve your audience, and then knock 'em out with amazingly valuable stuff. Be crazy good!!! Your customers and prospective customers are sure to appreciate the enhanced experience, and your business is sure to benefit.
* Imagery - All Facebook ads MUST have an image. It’s a requirement. And it must be a static image, as there is no support for animation or Flash technology. The image dimensions should be no greater than 110 pixels wide x 80 pixels high. You can deviate from this, but the aspect ratio in that case should be 4:3 or 16:9. And images need to be no larger than 5MB in order to be uploaded to Facebook. If your image is larger or smaller than 110 x 80 pixels, Facebook will automatically resize the image for you. So it’s ideal for you to take control and resize your images yourself. Make sure that your imagery matches the text messaging. The imagery should support the text and the text should support the imagery. And remember that with the image so tiny, you should avoid placing text in the image itself. For More Marketing Business Tools. Visit the Facebook Ads Page.
Happy Advertising!
