Social Networks
10 ways to Market your Business on Facebook
Apr 01 2010
Don’t worry! We are now offering online Facebook marketing training to give access to our top-rated social media training to people all over the world! This training course is one of our Pin Point Programs, which are newly-launched 90 minute social media online classes about the hottest topics in social media!
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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Krista,
I cannot say this enough, great information! I hope others are listening!
Gordon – Thanks so much for your comment here – I appreciate it.
This is a very good overview of Facebook marketing opportunities. Thanks for posting.
This is an excellent list and covers may aspects of FB as well as answers question pertaining to the different modules on FB. Now there is a Community Page that is new and has some interesting features. Thank you for your sharing and take care.
Prentiss – Thanks for sharing the opportunity of the Community Page – I’ll have to check that out.
Social media marketing is pretty much like any other form of marketing. Business Market
Thank you for sharing this information! — Mike Byrnes, President, http://www.byrnesconsulting.com
Facebook Marketplace may be suitable for some companies to sell products. I think this marketplace could emerge as a viable alternative to Craig’s List and eBay for some.
Brian – great build. The Marketplace can be a good opportunity to sell products. Being so new I haven’t heard much in terms of results yet, but as it grows I think we’ll start to see some major opportunities here. Thanks so much for sharing.
– Krista
Prentiss – Thanks for sharing the opportunity of the Community Page – I’ll have to check that out.
This is a very good overview of Facebook marketing opportunities. Thanks for posting.
Very helpful! I’m glad you stressed the importance of consistently providing relevant, engaging content. As our friend @prblog often says, social media is a commitment, not a campaign.
I manage two Facebook fan pages. One. Hamilton County (Ohio) Department of Job and Family Services, is for my job. Another, New Thought Unity Center, I do as a volunteer for my church. I’ve found that if I do relevant status updates daily, the number of “fans” grows slowly, but surely. And we get more interaction.
I’m really glad Facebook started e-mailing weekly stats, especially of visits. I’ve started tracking them in a bar chart, so we’ll have a benchmark for measurement. We’ll get a better idea of what our fans responded to and what they didn’t.