By Derek Ashauer
Facebook can frustrate even the most proficient Internet marketer. It’s certainly obvious that the world’s largest social platform has a lot of power when it comes to generating sales and leads.
With more than 1 billion registered members and a user base that often uses the platform continuously, it’s a great tool for reaching large numbers of people. However, most marketers will admit they struggle to use Facebook to generate any sort of interest or engagement, much less the kinds of measurable results that could be called a success in any business setting.
Why this disconnect, especially given that a lot of the same marketers use Facebook frequently in their daily lives? In our experience, it comes down to the fact that most people try to use Facebook like they would any other marketing medium. They duplicate the approach they take to email, pay-per-click ads, or search engine optimization and hope for the best.
From our experience in offering social media management, it is a completely different animal. To attract buyers on Facebook, you have to take a Facebook-centered approach. If you’ve had trouble developing a working plan in the past, here are a few tips to help you get started…
Keep Your Business and Personal Accounts Separated
You shouldn’t use your personal account as a marketing platform. This will annoy friends and family members while confusing customers. Keep the two separate, and avoid sharing too much personal information (especially of a religious or political nature) on your business account. It’s not worth losing customers because you want to share a rant that isn’t related to your company.
Spread Your Marketing Messages Using Images
It probably won’t surprise you to know that visual content gets more than seven times as many views, shares, and likes on Facebook than text updates do. So, if you have something you want your fans and followers to pay attention to, put it in image form. That will make it easier for them to notice in their feed, and increase the odds that your post will be shared.
Try to Reach Out to a Bigger Audience
Facebook’s news feed system is encountering the same problem Google had a few years ago – too much content is pouring in at once. As a result, your fans and followers might only be seeing a fraction of what you post. Consider boosting your content or using paid ads to reach a wider audience and attract engagement.
Be Clear With Your Calls to Action
On a blog post, you can get away with using complex forms and other heavy conversion mechanisms. On Facebook, though, someone who is interested in your content is likely to click a link that takes them somewhere else within the platform. So, use simple and clear calls to action to generate results. See if you can get someone’s attention first so you can win their business later.
Have Fun on Facebook
If your Facebook marketing feels like work, then you’re probably not doing it right. Users go on to waste time and have fun. That doesn’t mean you can’t slip your sales messaging in, just that you should do it in a light and interesting style. That’s the key to maintaining engagement over time.
Facebook is a huge marketing channel, but it isn’t the same as Google, an email inbox, or any other tool you’ve used in the past. So, if you want to make a big impression – and succeed in a way that most of your competitors can’t – you need to do things that work within its natural environment.
To get personalized help with your search, PPC, and social media strategies, call our team today to set a time to talk!