For any business looking to attract new customers and clients, Facebook, with over 500 million active daily users, is certainly a free and easy marketing tool that should not be passed up. It is estimated that more than 50% of medium and small businesses are using this social media site to market their products and services, and those that do not currently use the platform, will be left behind by their competition.
A business wanting to know how to market on FaceBook should follow specific procedures to be effective and allow the business to stand out from the crowd.
Tips to Create the Proper Account for Business
- Fanpage – The correct account type to create for your business is the Fanpage, which is different from a profile that is intended only for individuals. This page should be given a professional appearance by incorporating into the design certain elements that you already have on your website such as you company logo.
- Using Static FBML – Similar to HTML, FaceBook uses a display language known as Static FBML, so if you are familiar with HTML, you may want to attempt Static FBML or hire a professional to help you create an efficient and effective design for your fan page.
- Fan Page Creation – Under Pages in the advertising section of Facebook you will get the help you need for the creation of a fan page but be sure not to select a community page instead.
- Advantage of a Fan Page – A fan page makes it possible for the business to acquire followers very easily and automatically. No personal information will be exposed, either yours or those of your followers, and using a fan page will provide you with many customization choices you would not get otherwise.
- Fan Page Customization – Fan pages can be customized to allow you the ability to make customized landing pages or to create polls for your followers to complete. If your business is that of a dental or a chiropractor office, you will want to include a picture of yourself, but otherwise you should upload the company logo.
- Decide on the information you would like to include on your fan page. Examples are as follows:
- An opt in form for users to subscribe to your newsletter
- A page for testimonials
- A tab that showcases your business products and services
- Links to your other accounts such as YouTube, Twitter and your business website
- Contact information for your business that also provides business locations, working hours and phone number.
- Linking FaceBook to Business Website – Having created a business presence on Facebook, you can next integrate it with your website by placing ‘like’ buttons on the site’s contents. When a visitor clicks on the button it will provide them with news feeds on your updates which may lead to the friends of the user following the feeds themselves.
- Another tactic to use to entice users to your site would be to include a box of popular content and you may also display content that their friends have ‘liked’. These tactics will encourage readers to navigate to the business web site. Social plugins from FaceBook are also available and can be downloaded to help drive traffic to your business site
- Proper Way to Update the Fan Page – Once the fan page is created, careful consideration must be given to the way the page is updated. How often the page should be updated would vary with the business, so that must first be determined. It is important to not update too frequently for fear that your followers will become irritated. Update too infrequently and your followers will forget you.
- As with any content, your updates must be humorous and engaging to hold the interest of your followers, and periodically you will be able to provide information on business specials and sales. Providing contests and savings coupons will be well received by your followers and will help in their retention.
- Importance of Tracking Progress – Tracking your business marketing efforts is important to access its effectiveness and to be able to tweak it to achieve better results going forward. You can retrieve FaceBook daily stats from your fan page and these include such things like daily new likes, daily post feedback, monthly active users, and others.
- Monthly page stats are also emailed to the administrator of the fan page. Tracking of the fan page stats can be done by installing the FaceBook Google Analytics Tracker on the page.
How to market on FaceBook is easily enough done, but in order to be effective and efficient, the above tips should be carefully considered and followed.
Tags: facebook, facebook marketing, How to Market on FaceBook, social media marketing