With over 80 million users worldwide, anyone involved in online marketing should take advantage of Facebook. Here are some social marketing tips for using the biggest social networking site on the web.
Starting your own Facebook group is a great way to start social marketing. Groups make it easy to interact with others. They’re also great for the content you can upload, like photos and videos, and content management systems, like discussion forums and the “comment wall.”
Groups require a bit of management. As your group grows, it becomes easy for the group to lose focus. Spam becomes a problem after a certain level of growth. This is nothing you can’t overcome, if you spend a little time taking care of your Facebook group. Have some sort of screening process for new members and be sure to post regularly, to keep direction and focus.
Facebook Pages are great for open business accounts. They were made just for companies to promote themselves. Facebook pages can have Facebook apps as well as other things like flash and html. This gives you more interactivity on the page than you can get by simply making a group. You can also get more fans than with a group, since groups have fan limits and these Pages don’t.
One downside to these types of pages is that you can’t invite new people through fans, like you can with groups. However, you can share it with friends. This underscores how important it is to use everything Facebook (or whatever social networking site you’re on, for that matter) has to offer. You should take advantage of the strength of each feature, while covering the weakness of each feature, where possible, with the strength of other features.
Facebook even has its own classified ads section: Facebook Marketplace. You can place your ad by geographic region and interested parties can see your profile, even if they are not on your friends list!
However, be sure to read the terms of service and stick to them like glue. It won’t help your social marketing efforts if Facebook thinks you’re a spammer or a black hatter. In fact, you will lose a lot of time and potential money and traffic down the drain, if you happen to be a spammer! So be sure to read the Facebook Marketplace terms of service and always abide by them!
Facebook networks are great places to find new traffic, check out what the competition is doing, and get your hands dirty doing direct market research. Like groups, networks allow people to post comments and participate in forum events. Unlike groups, networks do not have a single person in charge. Socials are a great place to see what your market or niche is talking about.
Facebook Groups, Networks, Pages, and Facebook Marketplace are all great opportunities for social media marketing. I hope these social marketing tips help you use Facebook to the fullest!
