So you’ve already taken that first plunge into the world of social media and created a Facebook fan page for your business. Great! You’re beginning your journey into an exciting new territory that brings your offline relationships online and cross markets your business while building your brand. Of course, you probably already knew that having a fan page and advertising on Facebook is one of the most effective forms of advertising, didn’t you?
Well now you’re up and running and publishing status updates like crazy. Perhaps you even have a few followers. Want a few tips on gaining a few more?
- Cross-Promote your social media channels with your other web presences. You should always leave your customers with the impression that your brand is interesting and provide them with ways they can get more information. This includes putting GRAPHIC links to your facebook, twitter, etc on your website, and to mention your website on facebook, twitter, etc.
- Participate in others’ efforts online. The web is a community and the whole point of social media is to engage. A staggeringly low amount (10%) of executives give “engagement” as a top reason for implementing an online campaign, yet engagement is what drives sales. Be an engaging person beyond your site and people will come and engage you as well.
- Use old-fashioned traditional advertising methods to increase traffic to your site. You need to tell your customers that you’re online when they visit your store. That way, they know to look for you. Put your facebook page, website and all those online goodies onto your business cards, traditional marketing materials, and post it proudly in your windows.
By now you probably have so many followers, you don’t know what to do with them all. Just kidding. All of this takes time and patience. Just remember to have a positive attitude and stay consistent. If you get bored or feel like it isn’t your thing, try outsourcing (to us, of course!) your Facebook page or other online presence. But if you’re ready and rocking on, get ready to get a little messy.
Since you’ve driven all of this traffic to your Facebook Page, you probably want it to look all nice. Facebook allows for landing pages in the form of tabs at the top so when a user searches or goes to your company’s Facebook URL they will first see this page. By default, this option is turned off. All it takes is to active a simple application and to build out your own landing page with basic HTML and Facebook’s own markup language. If all of this sounds too complicated or you want a professionally designed landing page, they can also be purchased on the cheap. If you need help, there are plenty of online tutorials to show you how.
Now you’ll drive “Likes” up by having a professional looking page right from the get go. And with Facebook Fans now being priced at $1.07 each, it should be no time before your landing page starts to pay off.
With fans and a great landing page, your content should now drive sales and keep your clients happy. Remember the 80/20 rule where 80% of your time is spent on engaging and 20% is selling. Let your followers know you’re a person first and a business second. They will appreciate that and response positively. Engage in discussions and even try using Facebook to reward your loyal fans through the facebook deals (now defunct) platform.
Lastly, use Facebook to listen to your customers and be open to negative remarks. You heard me right. Don’t delete negative remarks unless they are completely false, defamatory or otherwise deemed inappropriate and use negativity as an opportunity to respond positively. No place can possibly have a 100% approval rating, so allowing negativity and showing your concern and efforts to correct any issues will only add to the legitimacy of your page and your following. Just ask this fan of Dead Space 2 how their online complaints were heard and how the publisher went above and beyond to correct the issue.
Using these tips and tricks, you should be able to build out your Facebook into a great marketing platform for your business. Keep your head in the game and always remember that your business is run by people too. Social media is about engaging with people firstly and leveraging that bond to create and retain a lifetime customer in the long term.
