In our digital era it is no surprise that a lot of people are not only simple social networks users, but are ready to make money out of it. Only a few decades ago it was impossible to imagine that you can become famous and rich (yes, I mean millionaire rich) by using social pages. While different apps and networks emerge every single day, hoping to become another social hit - there is a main giant of industry that has been toping the ranking of networks for quite a while already. Facebook. The largest social network in the world with more than 1.23 billion (!) active users. That’s a grand part of our planet! Facebook may have started as a social network for students in order to become one of the biggest marketing platforms in the world. If you are a person in the selling industry or intend to become one - ignoring Facebook Marketing is simply foolish. As the registration requires no fee, you cannot emphasis a single age group of users. Thus, you can find the perfect consumer of your product or services. There are enough users of any age on the platform for you to target. Moreover, the Facebook Marketing plan allows you to specify the type of people you are looking for. You can choose the future customer’s location, interests and demographics to make sure that your advertising is as useful as possible.
What are the tools for Facebook Marketing?
The good thing is that anyone can use these tools. To achieve better results faster, professional’s advice to combine all of the three.
# Pages: Pages are similar to simple Facebook profiles. A person can ‘like’ your page and then receive all of your updates in his thread. A user also has the option to simply ‘like’ the page, but not follow it. There are a few other differences between a page and a profile. On a page you do not have to accept friendship of the user, he simply starts following you. The number of people-friends of a Facebook page is not restricted, while a profile can have a maximum of 5000 friends. Pages are free and easy to maintain, but at the same time - it is hard to keep track of all of your subscribers and friends.
# Groups: Facebook groups are something like a symbiosis between a simple page and a forum thread. People can not only follow your group, but also leave their own posts (if you choose to give them the option to do so). The group name and description can be the name of the product or services you are offering. Unlike a page, with a group you are creating a whole community that can provide the users with interaction activities and all in all is very engaging.
Groups are also free, but to keep the potential customer’s interest- you have to spend a lot of time thinking of interesting, interactive activities you can publish.
# Facebook Ads: One of the tools of Facebook marketing is a well-made advertisement platform. When the users see ads - they have the option to close it or like, so it is not as disturbing as a lot of other advertisements on different websites. Ads - is the only tool you would have to pay for, but here you have the chance to make sure your advertisement reaches the right person. You can choose the group of people you are targeting by setting a specific age range, geographical location or even by narrowing it down to the device they are using. Read 6 Facebook advertisement mistakes that you must avoid!
Where to start?
Ready to begin your Facebook Marketing campaign? Great! After choosing one or more tools listed above be sure to work through every one of them.
Pages and Groups: It all starts from a profile photo and cover image. Use your company’s logo for the photo and something a bit more ‘friendly’ for the cover image. The ‘About’ section is as important. This is the thing people see right away under your logo. Explain to the user what kind of company he came across, so that he can decide whether to be interested or not. Tabs - the squares sitting to the right of your ‘About’ section. Use them wisely, depending on what services you are providing. This is the place where you can set your location or a calendar with an upcoming event, for example. Post only useful information! Do not spam. Ask your audience questions, make polls - do everything to try and engage them into your creation.
Facebook Ads: Firstly, choose the type of the ad you want. Will it lead directly to a Facebook page or to your website not connected with the platform? You can create ads that promote an event or even make one for mobile apps installs.
Remember that a user can choose to close your ad? Now that is a good thing, because after clicking the cross button the user will be asked to specify why exactly he didn’t like the ad, so that you can make a better one next time. Customize your ads. You have already found out about the strong targeting system for Facebook ads, so why not trying to customize your add for every demographic group, for example? When a person with specific musical interest comes across your ads, he can be able to see a few favourite band names on it (that can be done if you have a musical store, selling different kinds of music).
Facebook Marketing is not only a powerful tool, because of the amount of people using it. It is flexible, thus made as easy as possible for you to bring out your advertisements. The platform itself has a lot of advice helping you to get the most out of your business. But do not think that as soon as you create a page or an ad, you will start getting an outcome from it just at once. Even Facebook Marketing requires a lot of effort and time, whether you should come up with a new engaging post for your group or analyse the statistics of your latest ads. Experience - is what will help you to understand which strategies and practices are worth the effort. Anyways, such a giant audience as the Facebook one, is always a good place to start from. Good luck!
