6 WAYS TO A MORE EFFECTIVE FACEBOOK PAGE FOR YOUR BRAND

Congratulations to you if you’ve already created a Facebook page to lend further exposure to your brand.  You’re well aware of the benefits and advantages Facebook pages have to offer and making use of a Facebook page, as you know, is one of the smartest things you can do for your business.   Here are a few tips to help optimize your brand’s page and to let you effectively engage and maintain significant dialogue with your fans & clients:           

1.  Develop a distinctive voice for your brand.  Consistency is key here – you want people to know who you are and what your brand stands for.  It’s important to adopt a voice that best represents your brand and to sustain that voice.  I’m not suggesting that you should never try to mix it up a bit and be predictable to the point of being boring, but people like to be able to identify with something, so let your brand speak in a voice that will enable that identification.

2.  Never propagate the hard sell.  I’ve discussed this prolifically in previous posts.  Social media is not about blatantly advertising to your fans.  It is all about engagement and interaction.  And, that’s what your brand’s Facebook page is for – to connect with your fans and clients and to be accessible to them.

3. Promote dialogue and discussion by posing questions and encouraging fan involvement.  What better way is there to improve upon and expand your brand than to ask your audience for their feedback?  The inter-connectivity of your brand’s page makes this simple and straightforward.  Ask questions; ask for feedback and commentary.  People love to share their thoughts and opinions, and again, who better to listen to than the very people you are trying to engage. 

4.  Never inundate your fans.  The idea is to engage and enlighten, not to overwhelm.  Of course you want to post on a regular basis to maintain your audience’s interest, but nobody wants to be flooded with a hundred posts a day.  You’ve heard the expression “too much information”.  One or two posts a day will suffice, however, if you receive a comment or are asked a direct question, an imminent response is always warranted.

5. Post lots of photos, videos and polls.  Informative, thought-provoking posts are great!  But, human beings are, by nature, visual creatures.  If you really want to step it up a notch, ensure that you post photos and videos to enhance the visual aspect of your Facebook page - makes things more interesting, enticing and fun.  And, polls are a very effective way of fostering audience participation and garnering information.  It doesn’t always have to be business related either – sometimes a fun poll can lighten the mood a bit and let your fans know that you do have a human side – which leads me to the next point…

6. Be personable and show you’re human.  Social media have significantly altered the way businesses interact with their clients.  They have allowed for, well, just what the name indicates – ‘social’ behavior.  In enabling two-way communication between business and client, social media have broken down the barriers to allow for unprecedented personal, individual attention and interaction.  Take advantage of this and talk to your fans on a human level, the way social media have intended.  Get more personal with people – ask more personal questions – get to know them and what makes them tick.  Wish clients a happy birthday or congratulate them when their children are born!  A Facebook page not only allows for, but begs this type of interaction.   It all goes to customer service & satisfaction and developing a loyal fan base!

Win Fans and Talk to Your Clients: FACEBOOK PAGES

There’s a definite middle ground between electronic billboards & websites (which speak at the client) and individual Facebook accounts (which are a dialogue – interactive with the client).  A Facebook page allows you to have a professional online presence and enables you to present your business while engaging the client.  It allows you to publish instant updates, specials, news and activity information on a daily basis; whereas print copy takes months to produce & publish and website updates require a specialist. 

By using the ‘like’ and ‘dislike’ feature, you can poll your marketplace and determine its wants, needs and opinions.  Facebook pages allow you to create highly leveraged channels as your services spread virally to your network of friends and through updates on news feeds and ‘likes’ to their network of friends. 

It’s important to test the effectiveness of your campaigns and change out what is not working.  Since this marketing method is fast and inexpensive, you can feel free to try everything.  Determine what content doesn’t engage and remove it.  An experimental approach leads to the best outcome.  You may be close to great success, but may have little response.  Small changes may promote great results.  The key is to experiment and trial your approaches. 

To be successful, it’s vital to define and understand your target market.  It’s essential to develop an in- depth understanding of to whom you’re talking.  In essence, you need to share the same reality or way of thinking as your client.

To acquire that initial following:

1.      Develop some useful and enticing content for a broad market.  Build your fan base first.

2.      Develop a schedule.  Fans will look for weekly / bi-weekly or daily updates.  Stick to the schedule and don’t disappoint.  Keep it regular and keep it engaging.

3.      Monitor results and measure the success.  Use offers and click-thrus to web pages and Facebook Insights to determine your page stats and success. 

4.      Consider your timeframe.  There are no overnight successes with the exception of Charlie Sheen and the other already famous or infamous.  For business purposes, set up campaigns with strategies and goals and expect to spend months maintaining them and seeing them through. 

The challenging part of all this is creating content that engages and entices.  At the end of the day, consumers will interact with your business if they feel it is to their benefit.  Clients are only interested in what’s in it for them.  Remember, it is not about ’you’, it is about your customer.  So, provide them with some tangible incentives to visit your Facebook Page.  For example:

1.      Discounts

2.      Coupons

3.      Prizes

4.      Exclusivity

In some businesses, such as real estate or mortgage brokering, prizes are a possibility, and although discounts and coupons might present more of a challenge, one possible promotional tactic is to create an exclusive network that clients or potential clients want to belong to.  To do this, you could feature insights about and photos of properties in their areas.  The exclusivity of filtered information and the ability to comment (like or dislike) on properties or attributes of properties may act as an enticement.  A Facebook Page that features homes in a specific area (and includes photos) can become something that neighbors and potential clients will want to subscribe to.  Producing that tangible benefit can make all the difference to your customers!  And, not only will it keep them coming back for more, but they’ll also be inclined to let their friends know about you.  It’s all about networking!

For more on the virtues of Facebook, why not join one of our workshops and we can teach you everything you need to know to win fans and talk to your clients!  Please visit:

http://www.escomputertraining.com/courses/details/industry/2/course/20

 

FACEBOOK REACHES ONE TRILLION - YES, YOU READ IT RIGHT, ONE TRILLION - PAGE VIEWS

Facebook has reached an astronomical one trillion page views.  Wow, that’s a lot of clicking! Is there any question as to how far-reaching this most popular of all the social media sites is?  Just to put it into perspective: the world’s population is seven billion.  Now, ponder the number one trillion for a minute. 

Facebook also currently boasts 870 million unique users, according to Google’s DoubleClick Ad Planner.  That renders Facebook the number one site with respect to broad reach of internet users!

Is there any question that you, especially from a business standpoint, should be connected on Facebook and the other social media sites?  No, there should really be no question if you are truly interested in growing your business by growing your network of clients or customers; if you really want to easily maintain your contact management and if you truly want unsurpassed brand exposure.  Bearing in mind the number ‘one trillion’ page views, just think about how many people on any given day could potentially be looking at your Facebook page.  And guess what?  It’s free of charge and so easy to use.

Get connected today – let us show you how.  Come and join one of our Social Media for Business workshops and we can help you get started.  Please visit our website for schedule information at: 

http://www.escomputertraining.com/courses/details/industry/2/course/20