Social Media is one of those tempting outlets for business growth: it seems like it will be a free source of new business! However, knowing the ways to strategically spend time and money on social media like Facebook can be the key to really leveraging the social shopper.
The following advantages will help you take Facebook for Business to the next level, maximizing your reach.
Why businesses should be using Facebook to their Advantage!
1 – Facebook Pages, Ads, and Boosted Posts
Creating a Page for your business on Facebook is free, and it can be a great first step to creating a marketing strategy for your social media presence. On a page like this, you can list everything from a menu to a location, and your front page can be a curated set of links and posts related to your target market. The Facebook Business Page is also a hub for contact, since sending messages is possible, as is instant auto-response when you cannot man the page.
Ads, on the other hand, come in a variety of forms and can either lead to your actual online point-of-sale site or to your Facebook page itself, depending on your goals. A combined version of this is the concept of the “boosted post,” where a post that might have organically reached a certain amount of people who already were interacting with your Facebook Page would instead reach hundreds or thousands more people in your geographic area or who have searched for something similar recently.
2 – 80/20 in Content Strategy
One mistake, according to HootSuite, is treating a Facebook Page like it is simply a long string of advertisements. The content you include on the page should be intentionally chosen to entertain and inform those who are on the page, because social media platforms emphasize relationships. Sending the same kind of direct-promotion post over and over will come across as “spam” to viewers, and they will choose not to interact with your page.
Instead, choosing 80% of your content to simply discuss other things that might be of interest to your clientele, or to “share” posts from other Pages in Facebook, can help them see the Page as worth following, or receiving updates about. The other 20% of your posts, ideally, will include some direct promotion of your product, but again, they cannot be repetitive and must still be connected to the interests of the audience, not simply to the bottom line.
3 – The Call-to-Action Button
One special feature of Business Pages on Facebook, distinct from personal profiles for individuals, is the Call-to-Action Button. According to HubSpot, this button allows you to direct visitors to the Page straight to their most important content online or the product purchase page itself. These buttons vary from “Book Now” to “Watch this Video,” but with their prominent placement and design, they tend to get a lot of clicks, so incorporating one wisely is a real strength for driving traffic.
4 – Facebook Live Advantages
Facebook has a feature that allows for live video streaming of events, which can create a extra impetus for potential customers to spend time on your page and want to visit. Announcing via text post that a Facebook Live event will be happening, including things like press conferences, allows Facebook users to comment in real time and interact with each other about new products, major milestones, or just important announcements, which builds both brand awareness and loyalty. All it takes is a Facebook Business Page administrator who has a capable smartphone or video recording device, according to HootSuite.
5 – Facebook Insights Advantages
As you choose and implement strategies to incorporate all of the above advantages, you’ll want to be able to evaluate their success. The analytics tool Facebook Insights allows you to see everything from click through rate to views, evaluating what kinds of content your audience is most likely to see and most likely to enjoy and then click the “like” button. While many businesses incorporate all of the above strategies, it is possible that one or two of them will have an outsized impact on your particular target market, and you want to turn those numbers into a refined strategy for the future.
As you begin a Facebook marketing strategy, it is helpful to seek advice and insight from the marketing professionals at ThinkFlame. To figure out how social media marketing features in your overall marketing strategy, contact us.
Cassandra is the Content & Social Media Strategist at ThinkFlame. There is no challenge too big or too small. She enjoys creating, integrating and managing online communities and working with clients to building up their social footprint.