Apurva Jog
To be or not to be on Facebook is not the question anymore. With social media marketing spreading like a wildfire, it is impossible and potentially damaging for your business to stay away from Facebook. Most business owners decide to open up a Facebook account, and create a Facebook page, without being entirely aware of the do’s and don’ts and about how to get the most out of their Facebook pages.
To be able to capture your costumer’s attention, you will need to put together a decent Facebook page, which can garner a lot of genuine engagement. Of course, it will involve the application of a few simple marketing strategies, along with a pinch of creativity.
Creating your page
The first rule of setting up a Facebook page for your business is to not create a page with a fake Facebook account. You might be tempted to create the page under a dummy account to prevent any accidents like posting content meant for your personal profile, on your business page or to ensure that your employees don’t have easy access to your personal account. But instead of having a page linked to a fake account, you can train your employees to publish meaningful content and to think twice before they hit post.
Creative profile and cover photo
Also important, is to have an engaging profile and cover photo. You might love your pets, but they definitely don’t belong on your profile or cover photo. The very first thing that visitors to your page will notice is your cover photo. So, naturally, your cover photo needs to be attractive. For example, Sprite nailed it with their cover and profile photo on their Facebook page.
The image of the fizzy drink shooting out of the bottle, will definitely want to make you grab a bottle yourself.
Create and post good content
Other than images, you want to have great content on your Facebook page. Many businesses make the mistake of creating a page, and then abandoning it. For your consumers to visit your page and to keep visiting, you need to hook them on to the content that you publish. Think about the your target demographic, their hobbies, their interests, and create content that they will find appealing.
If you’re not great with words, and can’t seem to find the time to look for suitable content, you can always take some help from a social media management tool that can discover content and publish it to your pages.
Market your Facebook page
After you have created a brand new business page, you are ready to roll it out to the world. The process doesn’t just stop at creating the page. You will also have to promote your newly created page using an existing business network. Send out an email to your clients/consumers to inform them of the new addition and ask them to “Like” your Facebook page. By asking them to “Like” your page, you are automatically getting exposure on their newsfeed, and every time you post something new, your consumers will get direct notifications.
Focusing on social media marketing, instead of just social media can really help you get noticed. Promote your business page on the rest of your social media pages as well. Tweet a link to your page, add your page URL to your LinkedIn profile, or put the link in the description box of any YouTube videos that you might have uploaded. If you run a blog, you can even add a link to your Facebook page on your blog.
Promote upcoming events and offers
You can drive a lot of traffic to your website, or your Facebook page by posting details about any upcoming events, sales or offers. Many brands, like to give their audiences a little something to keep them coming back to the brand’s Facebook pages. Not just brands, but also film franchises and production companies occasionally post teasers of upcoming movies or television episodes to create a buzz around it. The makers of Game of Thrones posted a small glimpse of the season finale, which had fans raving about the last episode.
Some brands even run contests or have giveaways on their Facebook pages to promote their product. This leads to the target audience returning every day to check for more contests and giveaways – giving you the kind of engagement you need.
Engage in offline marketing
While online is the way to go, a little bit of offline marketing never hurt anybody. Tell your family and friends about your business page, and ask them to spread the message to people in their circles. You can also get the link to your Facebook page printed on your business cards so that people you give your cards to, will be aware of your business page. If you are giving presentations at a conference, or speaking at a seminar, be sure to include a link to your page on the last slide of your presentation, and ask people in attendance to visit your page.
Your Facebook business page can lead to many conversions, but it is not going to help you get a lot of engagement, if people don’t know about it. So, start creating and start marketing!
Image Credit: Firm Bee via Pixabay
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