Facebook has been around for several years now and is commonly understood to be a free ‘personal’ social media site. There are over 300 million users with a personal profile, friends and photos who can interact with each other and connect via ‘groups’ of similar interests. “You can’t judge a person by their Facebook” or so some people would argue but realistically it is very easy to define users with precise demographics. This allows for accurately targeted advertising which has a much higher hit rate than usual internet banner ads.
However, Advertising is not the be-all-and-end-all of marketing on Facebook, the very concept of the site allows anyone to create an online presence complete with a personality and even friends. Many small businesses have created ‘groups’ via an employee’s profile who then governs the group but some of the more cunning marketers have created their very own ‘profile’. This would allow them to collect ‘friends’, update their status, upload pictures and videos and manage their own groups and events.
Here is a list of things to do if you want your business to benefit from Facebook:
- Fill out a complete profile with as much information as you feel is necessary.
- Install appropriate applications to integrate feeds from your blog and other social media accounts into your profile.
- Upload professional or casual photos of yourself to reinforce your brand.
- Post your newsletter subscription information and archives somewhere in your profile.
- Obtain a Facebook vanity URL so that people can find you easily.
- Add your Facebook URL to your email signature and any marketing collateral (business cards, etc.) so prospects can learn more about you.
- Post business updates on your wall. Focus on business activities, such as “Working with ABC Company on web site redesign.”
- Share useful articles and links to presentation and valuable resources that interest customers and prospects on your wall, to establish credibility.
- Upload your contacts from your email client to find more connections.
- Market your products by posting discounts and package deals.
- Use Facebook Connect to add social networking features to your web site.
- Buy Facebook ads to target your exact audience.
- Start a group or fan page for product, brand or business. Unless you or your business is already a household name, a group is usually the better choice.
- Post upcoming events including webinars, conferences and other programs where you or someone from your company will be present.
- Update your group or fan page on a regular basis with helpful information and answers to questions.
- Join network, industry and alumni groups related to your business.
- Search to find groups and fan pages related to your business by industry, location and career.
Hopefully as a result of this you will begin to build up a list of contacts local or national depending on your needs, this will make it easier to establish trust with new customers and maintain relationships with existing ones.
Alternatively you could just ask us to do it for you!