As you know, Facebook is THE no 1 social media site around and not only this but it is also one of the best small business marketing resources there is. I was having a look at some stats to do with it today and it's staggering how big it is. As local businesses, you simply can't afford to ignore Facebook for the following reasons:
It has over 800 million members and your customers are using it.
Every day Facebook users comment or press the "Like" button more than 2 billion times.
Facebook reached one trillion page views in June 2011, making it the most-visited web site in the world.
And if these stats aren't enough to impress you, then thinks about this; Fan pages, if done correctly, can turn fans into CUSTOMERS. That's right, Facebook is one of the best ways to get people interested in buying your products and services and once you have happy customers, they share this around their community of friends via recommendations. This beats other small business marketing resources hands down.
Now unless you live on the planet Mars, you would have noticed that recently, Facebook has decided to introduce their timeline format so with this in mind, I thought it a good time to present you with some of the best Facebook marketing tips I have learned (and no, spending hours a day spamming people isn't one of them). So check out these top 5 tips, and start using them immediately.
1) Create a great cover for your timeline page:
As we bid farewell to profiles and start welcoming the new timeline format, it's a great time to update your look. The new timeline gives us an opportunity to give ourselves a professional makeover by creating a new banner. This is fantastic for personal branding and I would definitely take advantage of this if I were you. So what should you include? Well, for starters, make sure the photos are actually of you. You can get professional shots done or get a friend to do it but make sure the photo makes you look friendly and approachable. Your image is going to be your brand and you want people to have positive associations with it. Then highlight something about your business such as a product or service or tell them to visit the website you have listed in the space just below the cover. Include some other photos of your self or things from your life and you'll have a fantastic banner that's ideal for personal branding. You can get all of this put together by a freelancer for about $30. Just visit freelancer.com and see who'll bid for the project.
I also found a great tool that you can use for free called FaceIt Pages which allows you to create timeline covers and fanpages and they're not bad.
2) Make sure you are posting lots of good-quality content:
Did you know that once people start clicking on your posts, they will appear more times in their own walls as top priority items? This is why you need to engage friends and fans as much as possible. For this reason, you need to be creating fresh content and make sure that content is something that people will want to read. Create catchy headlines which encourage readers to click on it and read and also put an interesting image with it and you will find that over time, people will following you regularly without even knowing that they are. The new Facebook format allows people to subscribe to you as well so if they see your content as particularly relevant, useful or entertaining, they may subscribe to your posts.
3) Create some 'buzz' around your page - get people talking:
Ask people questions, poll them about important things or entice them to give feedback. People are going to want to follow someone more if they have been interacting on their page. Make sure some of the questions you ask or info you share is more personal so your page isn't just a forum for sharing business opportunities or selling stuff - otherwise people will lose interest in you.
4) Create photo albums:
Nothing gives people a better idea of who you are than a photo album. Albums are great for personal branding and like 'creating a buzz', they add life and interest to your page encourage eyeballs to stay on your profile longer. Make sure you include plenty of personality shots and fun ones. Remember, Facebook is a social networking site and there is no need to have a serious and businesslike appearance.
5) Add an opt-in box to your fanpage:
Why do we bother having fanpages if they are not going to collect the email addresses of people who visit? Creating an opt-in box may seem a little difficult for some people but if you visit freelancer.com, you can just get someone to create one from Aweber or one of the other email marketing service providers. After all, Facebook can easily become one of your most important small business marketing resources and you don't want to waste this opportunity.
So there you have some of my best tips for making the most out of Facebook and you can start putting them in place straight away.
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