The Internet World Stats listed 1.11 billion worldwide users for Facebook by the 2nd of May, 2013. That alone is reason enough why Facebook and other social media channels have evolved into a very useful marketing tool for businesses of all size, niche and origin. Just like having a good and optimized website can create a strong online presence for your brand, success in your Facebook marketing campaign can assure a financially rewarding experience for you and your business in the social media arena.
But before any business can dive in and use Facebook for their social media marketing plans, there are several considerations to understand that make this marketing tool quite unique and revolutionary compared to traditional channels in the past. The most important thing business owners should remember is that Facebook is an engagement platform and was made very successful because of its ability to interconnect people from across the globe. Effectively leveraging this engagement and interaction between your brand and your customers is an assurance of social media success.
The concept of word-of-mouth proved to be one of the most powerful marketing tools for any business, and this same principle is basically the essence of the Facebook “like” button. It is definitely a vote of confidence for visitors drawn to your Facebook posts, an online word-of-mouth commendation that can go viral in moments – with your business or brand reaping the benefits. Your business can also take advantage of the power of Facebook Marketing and the following gives you an overview of the basics that will set you on the right path towards social media success.
1). Understand the Facebook Rules of Engagement
Before diving into any technical stuff in creating your Facebook marketing campaign, it is imperative for business owners to know the basic rules of engagement for Facebook users. As mentioned earlier, Facebook is an engagement platform and requires social interaction in order to work. People should not just join in the discussion and start selling or advertising their products or services. People tend to interact only with other users who can give them value or provide their need. This engagement is necessary for your business to build trust and when this is established, interest in what you have to offer will naturally follow through.
2). Choose a Good Vanity URL for Your Facebook Page and Groups
There are three basic channels where you can build a good Facebook presence: your personal profile, the Facebook Business Page, and the Facebook Group. The great thing about creating these channels is that Facebook allows you to use your own vanity URL, as long as it’s not yet taken or has not violated any Facebook rule. This vanity URL can be used as a subdomain that will attract people directly to your page or group, much akin to the pages or subdomains you have in your main website. When doing so, choose one that is simple, easy to remember and relevant to your brand, product or services.
3). Using Facebook Pages
Facebook pages is an amazing marketing tool that businesses, brands and professionals can use to establish their own social media brand and create a following. The coolest thing here, is this tool is completely free but has more features for posting content, sharing links, and interaction with followers – all potential customers for your brand – than your traditional web pages.
Customization can also be done to a certain extent, helping your page create its own personality that can establish your social media brand. There are apps and third part tools can help you create a Welcome Page that can be configured as your default landing page instead of your main Facebook timeline. This can serve as your first gate of interaction with visitors, where engagement with visitors can turn them into fans – and potential customers.
4). Using Facebook Groups
Facebook group is like an evolution of discussion groups or traditional forums but are still operating within the boundaries and social media confines of Facebook. One of the cool features in Groups is that it can be configured as Open to the public or set to Private. But what makes Groups an effective tool for Facebook Marketing is that you are not only interacting to a single individual but to a whole network of like-minded people as well as the Friends of your Facebook Friends as well.
5). Selecting the Best Content to Post on Your Page or Groups
The next step after creating your Facebook pages and groups is to determine what particular content you would like to post and share to your audience. Remember the rules of engagement and not just “sell” anything outright. Post something: an article, an image, an external link or a video that your audience may find useful, informative and entertaining – something that they will enjoy.
6). Some Ways to Build a Following for Your Brand
The key purpose for engaging in a Facebook Marketing campaign is to build a strong following for your brands, products and services among Facebook users. Having a Fan Page and a Group can be good starts but in order to build a strong and loyal following, you need to be:
- Consistent with frequency and quality of your postings.
- Your content should be relevant to what your audience is interested in.
- Your content exudes a level of excitement that your audience will find worthy enough to share and create a viral impact.
- Cater to your audience’s need to be entertained and engaged.
7). Turning Your Facebook Engagement into Sales
Again, it is important to reiterate that people use Facebook not necessarily to buy something. Most people use Facebook to connect with friends and family, seek information about something that will entertain them, or engage with real people in healthy discussions. This is where trust is built, an important aspect in doing business online. But in the course of your engagement with your audience, you can develop a strong level of following that will trust your brand enough to ultimately seek for more information and eventually make a purchase.
8). Integrate Facebook into Your Website
There are many ways to integrate Facebook into your website and Facebook’s own social plugins are useful enough tools to create an even bigger engagement with your users. In a study conducted by Gigya, a leader in social infrastructure technology, it was established that users of Internet wants to use their social media accounts to register and log-in to websites. And that the most popular social site whom people used as social log-in is non-other than Facebook! The study further explained that Facebook is still the dominant network that majority of users share their content. Based on this study, we can conclude that giving users an option to use their social media account to register to your website and put the Facebook like and share button to every pages of your website would be a beneficial strategy that should be done asap.
9). Make Use of Facebook’s Page Insight
One of the coolest things in using Facebook is the availability of metrics, statistics and other useful information through Facebook Insights. The goal of Facebook insight is to help you become aware as to how to respond to your audience and how to market to them properly. Facebook can provide you with these powerful info’s:
- What particular type of post solicits the most response from your audience.
- Engagement insights and activities on your page.
- Weekly total reach.
- Where your page likes came from.
- Top Countries and Cities of your fans.
- And more.
10). Make Use of Facebook Ads
Lastly, to create an even bigger reach for your brand, you can make use of Facebook Ads to promote a page or a post. You can have complete control of the budget for these Ads. The great thing here is that you can specify the particular Facebook users that can see your Ads, ensuring that your paid ads will only reach the most targeted audience for your business – attracting an even more targeted prospects that will most likely turn into high-paying customers. Check out this infographic on why you should advertise your business on Facebook.
Facebook has revolutionized the way people interact with one another, bringing people with similar interests together, or old friends separated by distances to connect once more and share their day to day experiences in a fun and very engaging way. This proved to be very useful for businesses wanting to expand their reach and interact more with their potential customers – and the same technology can literally be at your fingertips by learning and understanding more about Facebook Marketing campaigns.
Jomer B. Gregorio is a well-rounded expert when it comes digital marketing. Jomer is also known as a semantic SEO evangelist and practitioner. Check out our Digital Marketing Services today and let us help you in achieving positive and profitable results for your business.