10 ways to Market your Business on Facebook
I do presentations, seminars, workshops and training on Social Media a lot, and there are always a number of questions about Facebook and how businesses can grow using Facebook. Here are 10 opportunities to grow your business on Facebook.
1. Create a Fan Page
This is the most obvious facebook marketing tool for most companies. The problem is that most Facebook pages are not very effective. You collect “fans” (who are primarily your friends and not really your fans anyways) only to ignore them. It can be a good idea to set up a fan page and reserve your name (you need at least 25 fans to do this), but beyond that, if you want to grow your business with a fan page you need to have compelling and consistent content and a clear call to action. Otherwise you are wasting your time.
2. Creating a Group
Rather than just a fan page, consider creating a group as it can be broader and more overarching. For example, rather than requesting people fan Joe’s Pizza Store, which is rather limited in it’s appeal, consider starting Pizza Lovers In My City as a group. You will then be the connector for all of the pizza lovers in the city. Sure they will talk about other pizza joints, but you will get the benefit of awareness through bringing the community together and facilitating. You can also periodically promote your own place too.
3. Facebook Ads
Facebook ads can be a great way to grow your business. Facebook ads have a self-service mechanism that you can use to set up and target your ad campaign. Facebook ads are great because you can start with low budgets, analyze results and make changes. Facebook ads also allow you to target based on profile key-words, so they can be more effective than search ads.
4. Facebook Events
Consider setting up an event on Facebook. When we had our launch party we had almost twice the number of RSVPs through Facebook as we did through EventBrite and non-Facebook promotion. Next time you are speaking or hosting something, consider creating it as a Facebook event to drive awareness.
5. Participate in a Group
Rather than create your own group you can find other established groups to participate in. For example, if you are Joe’s Pizza Place there might be a group for Food in City X or Restaurants in City X. You can participate in these groups to build awareness. Be careful not to spam (it is annoying and unprofessional).
6. Participate on Other Fan Pages
Again, you need to be careful not to be irrelevant and spammy, and you don’t want to participate on your competitors pages. However, you may find it valuable to participate in other fan pages. For example, we work with the ad:tech fan page, and companies who participate in ad:tech will share links and comments about what they have planned for the next conference, or they’ll promote their writeups about the conference. This provides them with exposure to their target audience beyond those who are already fans.
7. Link In Your Other Social Accounts
There are apps that allow you to link your other social accounts in to Facebook including Twitter, SlideShare and YouTube. Share all of your other social content on Facebook (where appropriate) to maximize value.
8. Facebook Apps
Consider creating an app for your business. Purina PetCentric has an app where people can share photos of their pets to participate in a “cute pet” contest. This is a great way to gain exposure while proving something useful and fun.
9. Facebook Connect
Facebook connect allows you to link with Facebook directly from your site or blog. You can use Facebook connect to integrate with Facebook and gain exposure and encourage your fans to share content on Facebook.
10. Facebook Widgets
Facebook has widgets that you can create and display on your blog. You can see ours on the right promoting our fan page. Widgets are a great way to connect Facebook with your website and they are relatively easy to install. This is also a great way to increase the # of fans that you have.
Does anyone else have tips for how to market on Facebook? Did we miss anything?
7 Mistakes Companies Make on FaceBook and how to Avoid Them
Facebook is big and getting bigger with over 300 million active users of which over 50% are active every day.
While Facebook is clearly an engaging platform for users to connect with friends, marketers have struggled with how to use the massive audience on Facebook to build their businesses.
Here are the top mistakes that companies are making on Facebook.
1. Not Starting with a Strategy
Where most people go wrong with Facebook is not starting strategically. Like many social media tools (and any kind of marketing for that matter), a solid strategy at the outset is key to success. Who are you trying to target, what is your message, how will you reach them and what is in it for them?
To Overcome This: Take time before starting the page to understand exactly who you are targeting and what your message is.
2. Focusing on the Number of Fans/Friends/Followers
Despite its lack of real relevance, many people focus on the number of fans or group members that they have. Get over it. I have met with a number of clients who have said “we need to get on Facebook because our competitor has X number of fans and we hardly have any”. The number of fans doesn’t matter – it is how you engage them.
How to avoid this: Don’t let your manager use numbers as a key metric. It isn’t difficult to get fans or followers, but it isn’t relevant. Explain that a balanced approach helps measure what really matters based on your strategy.
3. Lack of Creativity
It isn’t just about creating the asset – the page, the event, the ad campaign. It is about the creative execution. To engage on Facebook you need to have a strong creative execution. What is the content for the page? How does it ad value? What is exciting or interesting for your fans/friends/followers?
A successful Facebook strategy requires a great creative execution – run contests, communicate with members, share photos and videos, do something interesting.
A great example of this is the Petcentric fan page – they have photo contests with voting that keeps fans coming back for more.
How to avoid it: Do creative brainstorming. Spend some time and energy coming up with an exciting creative plan for your Facebook assets. Build a content plan. Create promotions.
4. No Fan Engagement
Lack of creativity leads into the next point – no fan engagement. Many companies create a fan page, invite their friends or buy ads and then forget about the page. An effective Facebook strategy actively engages fans.
To Avoid This: Build a content plan that is relevant and engaging to your audience. What will you post when? How will you engage and encourage your fans to post? What is in it for them. Build an engagement plan, not just a page.
5. Not Monitoring Discussions
Nothing looks worse than fan pages where the company is not active and responding to their fans. Monitor your fan page for activity and respond to relevant questions or comments.
I was once on a fanpage where fans were questioning the company policy. The company didn’t respond and looked weak.
How to Avoid This: Monitor your facebook page regularly and have someone who is empowered to respond on behalf of your organization.
6. Not Owning Your Fan Page
A number of companies have issues where their fan page is created and administered by an actual fan, and not the company. The issue is that fans assume that fan pages are run by the company, and expect the company to play an active role.
While having a real fan own your page may not immediately present issues, you can’t predict when, why or how issues will arise.
How to Avoid This: Contact the fan who created the fan page and try to get the page back. You can always work through Facebook, but that may upset the original owner (who is your biggest fan afterall).
7. Not looking at Analytics
Facebook fan pages now have insights and analytics. You can see how engaging your page is. This is a great tool to understand what is effective and to continuously refine and improve your Facebook fan page.
Analytics will help you understand what is working and what isn’t.
How to Avoid this: Look at analytics and make changes based on them.
