As a small business, it can be exciting to dream of having thousands of “friends” on Facebook driving lots of extra traffic to your website or retail locations. But getting to this point of success won’t happen overnight. You will need to invest in your social media efforts. As you spend money in this area, be sure to pick up best practices and avoid wasting money on your overall strategy.
Spend Money on Facebook Wisely
Driving social media traffic to your website or physical stores is a great way to keep customers coming back and to bring new customers in.
Do: Set up a Facebook Page
Facebook has made setting up a business Facebook page pretty simple. You want to make sure your business has a spot on one of the highest trafficked social media sites in the world. Having a Facebook page gives your fans a place to rave about your product or service, and share anything you post to your Facebook wall with their friends.
Don’t: Ignore Your Facebook Page
You can’t just set up a Facebook page and forget about it. You need to regularly spend time monitoring the wall posts and comments. This is where your customers are coming to interact with your brand, and they can’t interact if you aren’t there. Regularly post to your wall with photos, thoughts, articles, and contests. Without regular interaction your Facebook following will never take off.
Do: Add a Profile Photo
When you set up your Facebook business page, be sure to put your company logo up as the profile photo. Don’t leave it blank, and don’t put your own face there unless your face is normally what customers see when they look for your brand.
Don’t: Constantly Change Your Profile Photo
You want to give a consistent message and look to your profile page. When your users are sharing your brand with their friends they shouldn’t have to guess which logo or photo is yours. Consistency will pay off in the long run. Leave the photos to your business’ Facebook wall.
Do: Market to New Customers on Facebook
You can engage with your potential customers on Facebook that aren’t currently “liking” your brand in several ways. You can post something that gets shared by people already “liking” you to their own walls. Add a contest to your wall and give an entry to every person who “likes” the post and shares it on their own walls. You can also invest dollars into advertising on Facebook. Those ad dollars could drive traffic to your Facebook page or back to your website.
Don’t: Spend Thousands Advertising on Facebook
An effective Facebook strategy does not have to be expensive. The steps of setting up a page, adding a profile brand photo, and simply interacting with your customers is not complicated nor costly. You can take all of those steps without spending thousands in marketing. The best social media campaigns are those that begin genuinely with a comment, video or photo shared from a customer that goes viral in the community. To get that interaction, your service has to be top notch. If you have a poor product or service, no amount of Facebook marketing will help you.
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