Facebook marketing success depends upon a number of factors, including knowledge of top features, monitoring trends, content strategy, posting consistency, as well as a basic foundation or plan. Let’s go back to the basics in this post and use 5 tips to create a strong foundation for your Facebook Page. Then you can set up specific strategies for marketing content, and managing your Page.
Tip #1: Define your Target Audience
Do you know who makes up your target audience?
The best content in the world won’t attract new Fans if you don’t know who you are creating that content for! So you’ll need to do a little research, which can be as simple as looking at your current customers.
If you don’t have any customers yet, then research industry leaders and/or competitors on social media to get an idea of who makes up their target audience.
Then, based on current customers (or your ideal customer), develop a profile of your target audience: demographics, problem to be solved, geographic location (if applicable), etc.
No matter what your product or service, the more clearly you define your ideal customer, the more effective your marketing efforts will be.
Tip #2: Set Realistic Goals
Why should you have a Facebook Page?
It’s not enough to say “because everyone else has one!”. You need to set specific goals that apply to your business. A few examples might be:
- Brand Awareness
- Lead Generation
- Sending Traffic to your Website
- Selling Directly on Facebook
- Building Deeper Relationships with Customers (or Establishing Relationships with Prospects)
Tip #3: Research (and Monitor) your Ideal Customer’s Online Behavior
What is your target audience doing on Facebook?
What other Pages do they like on Facebook? Do they play Facebook games? What Facebook Groups are they members of?
If you know members of your target audience like a specific Page, you can visit that Page periodically and take note of the comments and/or questions they leave there.
Once you have 100 or more Fans on your Page, then use Facebook Graph Search to learn more about them.
Here are 3 possible searches you can do on Facebook. Type each of the following search phrases (in bold) in the browser at the top of your Facebook screen and replace the words in all caps with your unique text.
Search #1: People who like YOUR_PAGE_NAME
Example: I would type in People who like League Computer Solutions
This gives you a list of all of your Fans. Take note of the Groups they belong to or other Pages they like, to get an idea of their demographics or activity on Facebook.
Search #2: Interests of people who like YOUR_PAGE_NAME
Find out if there are some common interests you can highlight in your posts (and/or Ads) that will attract similar people to your Page.
Search #3: Pages liked by people who like YOUR_PAGE_NAME
Pay attention to activity on other Pages that your current Fans like. You can set up several of these as Pages to Watch, or use them in the interest targeting fields when creating Facebook Ads.
Make note of the search results and use them in your marketing strategy. For example, if a lot of your current Fans belong to an open Facebook Group where you can contribute some value, consider joining that Group to attract new Fans.
Tip #4: Optimize Available Resources
What are your available resources?
You need to be realistic about how much time the management of a Facebook page requires. At the very minimum, you need to check in to your Page at least once a day and respond to comments or messages, and make sure you post content (either real-time or scheduled) at least several days each week. Most successful Facebook Pages have managers who put in a good deal more time than that.
Some things to consider:
- The Page Admins/Managers and number of hours each week they are available.
- The Budget/Funds available for outsourcing Page management (if you’ll need help).
- The Budget/Funds for Facebook Ads (most successful Pages spend something on ads; a big investment is not required and you have a lot of flexibility on when and how to spend).
Note: You can definitely create and grow a very successful Page without spending any money, so if you are on a tight budget, don’t be discouraged. Just realize that more of your time may be required.
Tip #5: Take Care of your Customers
Do you have a Customer Service Policy in place?
Social media sites are more and more becoming an area where customer service is expected from brands. And you’ve probably read about or seen examples of bad customer service on the internet.
Business owners know that we can’t make everyone happy all the time, but it’s important to prepare yourself (and your team) on how to handle customer service on your Facebook Page.
Some things to consider:
- The amount of time it takes you to respond to comments and messages (and the response time expected by users; on Facebook this can range from several hours to 24 hours, depending on the situation.)
- A set of guidelines for your employees or Page Admins when dealing with negative reviews, complaints and messages. Make sure everyone on your team knows how you want to handle customer service on your Page.
So use these tips to create a solid foundation for your Facebook strategy and you’ll find it easier to successfully market products, and/or services in the long-run.
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