Four Tips for Facebook Marketing

Tommy Humphreys

| March 15, 2010

Image by: Facebook

With over 400 million users, Facebook has become more than just a place to connect with friends. It's also one of the most powerful marketing and advertising platforms ever built.

Advertisers know that Facebook users are more engaged than your average channel-flipper: they're checking the site several times a day, and they're using it as their main platform for consuming and producing content.

If you're a consultant or small-business owner, you should be using your personal profile to grow your business (in addition to spying on your kids). Here are a few tips for putting Facebook to more productive use.

Inflate your friend list

You don't have to have a publicly viewable profile in order to get your message out — you just have to have lots and lots of "friends." Don't be shy about connecting with colleagues, acquaintances, and friends-of-friends – the more the merrier. I'll explain why in a bit.

Pimp your profile

There's no point in being modest: you need to let people know what you're all about. Use a flattering, professional picture, and use the text box below to promote what you do. Don't forget to include links to your website or blog.

Buy some ads

It's easy, it's affordable, and it's extremely targeted. Recently, a friend of mine started a Facebook advertising campaign for what you could call a niche service: lifecoaching for pharmacists. While that may sound like an impossibly small demographic, Facebook's sophisticated targeting tools, combined with its overall breadth, meant that she could still reach over 2000 high-quality prospects with one buy. That type of marketing is simply not possible using conventional channels.

Be visible

As I've said before, pumping out content is the single best marketing strategy I know of. Share your blog articles in your news feed, and be sure to "like" and comment on other people's posts. That way, you're more likely to pop up in their feeds as well.

You may not get an immediate response with everything you do. But over time, you will build mindshare. If you're consistently posting plumbing-related articles, your friends will think about you – and refer you – when they or someone they know has a leaky pipe.

OK, so maybe that's not the best example, but you get the idea. By combining the personal with the professional, you can bolster your credibility and expand your reach. Just remember: be yourself, and don't be shy.

Tags

Good post Tommy. Here is an

Submitted by 1300WebPro (not verified) on Sun, 2010-04-04 18:24.

Good post Tommy. Here is an except from a letter I wrote to a magazine recently which is probably relevant: ------- The continuing growth of Facebook is simply astounding. Overtaking Google for unique visits in a day is a feat I would have thought impossible, and yet Facebook achieved this in February. This ever-expanding medium presents quite a marketing opportunity to businesses. Getting a business “Page” on Facebook is free, and takes all of five minutes to set up. We are seeing most traction in business Pages from the two opposite ends of the business size spectrum; SOHO’s and large multinationals seem to be dominating Facebook. The main two issues preventing businesses in the middle of this spectrum in taking part are a lack of leadership and a lack of direction. Someone in the organisation needs to be tasked with developing the Facebook Page, and needs to be given latitude in order to do this. Pages with the most successful “fan” followings generally do five things right: they provide special offers and competitions to their fans (meaning it is beneficial to actually be a fan); they are able to respond immediately, and with actual resolutions, to any complaints; they strike a careful balance in post frequency, and they embrace fan commentary as opposed to censoring it. The Facebook Page system is a brilliant marketing tool that no business can afford to ignore. ------- A lot of business Page owners also do not know about Vanity URL's at Facebook: http://faqs.1300webpro.com.au/2010/04/vanity-urls-for-facebook-pages.html Cheers James Deck 1300 Web Pro http://www.1300webpro.com.au

Pimping out your personal

Submitted by TommyHump (not verified) on Fri, 2010-03-19 09:44.

Pimping out your personal profile is something you should do on its own or in addition to having a Fan Page. If you have the resources to do both, by all means. I would add that not every business owner represents their business on a personal level. Certainly you don't think of John Doe when you think Tide Detergent. With that said, the more in front of your business you are, the more your personal network will remember what you do. Hope this helps! Tommy

Are you saying a small

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2010-03-17 09:30.

Are you saying a small business owner should build up a personal profile and not a facebook page? Can you expand on why you would chose that route or a fan page.