How to Gain Customers Through Facebook
Looking for ways to improve your Facebook marketing strategy by increasing your fandom?
Of course you are. Because you know that the people who become your Facebook fans today will become your paying customers tomorrow. That is, of course, unless you’re one of those Mayan calendar fanatics who’s convinced we’re running out of tomorrows and you’ve decided that building a fortified underground bunker full of canned beans is more important than building your online customer base. You crazies are on your own.
For the rest of you, The Content Factory would like to offer some advice on Facebook marketing strategy we recently came across on Mashable. The writers at Mashable bring up a great point – that many business owners are trying to build online presence by chasing after strangers when they should be building their reputations through the fans they already have.
Think about it – are you more likely to check out an online clothing store because it appears in your ad sidebar, or because one of your most fashionable friends shares photos on the news feed of cool shoes and bags? We’re all much more willing to engage and interact when our friends are already enjoying the party.
Here are some ideas Mashable offered to help business owners utilize their existing networks to improve their existing Facebook marketing strategy:
Many businesses think of Facebook as the place to get new customers, and it certainly can be. But the most effective way to get those new customers is through word-of-mouth (or the online version, which perhaps should be called word-of-keyboard?)
Many businesses want to reach new audiences on Facebook, but they just aren’t sure how. The answer is simple: through your existing fans. Here are some of the ways that you can use your current customers to generate awareness with their friends:
– Encourage interactions with content to build awareness
– Run contests or trivia where your fans reveal interesting things about their personality
– Ask customers to post photos on your Facebook
– Feature customers on your Facebook
– Provide incentives for sharing
– Build contests for sharing and social spread, not to maximize entries
– Create an extraordinary visual experience that customers want to share
– Build mass momentum with events … more at The Real Value of Facebook Isn’t Your Likes or Fans
Notice something about these activities? We do – they’re all engaging. It’s important to remember that you can’t simply rely on your fan base to do your work for you. You have to make it fun, to create rewarding experiences that will get them interacting with and sharing your content.
Here are some ways to improve your Facebook marketing strategy to gain customers:
Experiment With Promoted Posts
According to a recent Vocus blog, “The new reality on Facebook is that 99 out of 100 Fans will never see your (unpromoted) Posts” That’s a pretty scary statistic. The good news is that creating a monthly budget of even just $250/month to experiment with to boost your posts can make a huge difference. Not only can it result in an increase in interaction, it can also result in an increase of traffic to your site.
Multiple Photo Posts
You can increase the number of impressions your post receives by posting multiple photos at a time as opposed to posting a single photo or album. This article from Jon Loomer shows you how to implement this simple trick into your Facebook marketing strategy.
Tag Your Photos
Whether you have recent or older photos, you can give them an impression boost by tagging as many as possible. Keep in mind that pages can only tag other pages and not people, but you can tag people that you’re friends with on your personal Facebook profile.
Stop “Like-bait Posts”
The latest Facebook algorithm update buries “like-bait” posts , which is basically any post that directly asks users to “like”, “share” or “comment” on it – formerly standard calls to action for Facebook business page updates. Now, you have to get a bit more creative with your calls to action.
Overwhelmed? Contact us today and we’ll help you grow your Facebook Likes and create your own Facebook marketing strategy.