Facebook is bigger than any country in the world, with 1.94 billion users.
The social media platform not only provides you access to this large population, but also helps them find you.
That is why investing in Facebook marketing is a no-brainer.
You can accomplish a lot organically on Facebook without obliterating your entire marketing budget.
With the right content and Facebook marketing strategy in place, you can:
- Reach your target audience.
- Create brand awareness.
- Cultivate relationships with prospects, partners, and influencers.
- Tap new global audiences.
- Conduct market research.
- Seek marketing feedback.
- Drive sales and business growth.
With effective social media management and the right content, you can achieve most or all of these goals.
Here are seven Facebook marketing ideas that will help your business.
1. Maximize Your Real Estate
Your Facebook page is free real estate. It costs nothing to create and can help you generate real business.
The space you have on your page is all yours for use. Your cover photo, profile photo, introduction video space, business description, and posts are each an opportunity to grab your audience’s attention. Use them well.
Your cover photo is what visitors first see on your Facebook profile. Use it to make a great first impression.
Instead of settling for a conventional logo or business name as your cover, you could use it to demonstrate your skills and the product/service that you are selling.
For instance, a digital marketing agency could use its cover photo to show off its copywriting or design skills.
Ensure that you have all details filled out on your Facebook page for maximum searchability and impact.
2. Curate Great Content
Creating content can be time-consuming and expensive. Instead, you could curate great content, entertain and inform your fans, and also build relationships with bloggers in your industry.
You can’t browse through hundreds of websites and sources looking for that content, but content curation apps can.
Alternatively, you could create a list of sources to follow beforehand, making it easy to find content on a consistent basis.
When sharing curated content, ensure that you tag the blogger and publication responsible for creating it to assign them credit and catch their attention.
3. Mobilize Your Audience
Litographs is a web-based store that turns books into art. They create visually appealing posters, bags, and T-shirts so they have a lot of visual content that they can share.
The company uses their Facebook page to promote sales, but they also create humorous entertaining posts to connect with their audience. Many of their posts feature questions, inspirational content, and activities that draw their fans into participating.
One of their fun ideas was to create a tattoo chain using dialogues from “Alice in Wonderland”. Participants were urged to get temporary tattoos of dialogues and share photographs on their Facebook page, creating the world’s longest tattoo chain.
Fans love being included in special, fun activities.
4. Go Behind the Scenes
People are more likely to relate to your brand if it is personal and human.
While personal shares are a great tactic, so is giving your audience exclusive access to what no one else can see.
The story of what happens behind the scenes is a great way to engage your fans. It not only puts focus on the people behind your brand but gets fans to relate to your human side.
People are also likely to be sold on your product or service if they are privy to the efforts that are put into creating them.
Behind the scenes stories can be incredibly entertaining and popular, especially in the entertainment industry (e.g., the making of music and movies).
Several artists and actors have also begun to live stream from backstage during performances.
5. Focus on Local Activity
If you’re a local business, it’s important for you to leverage content that engages your local network. Several large brands also have pages focused on each locality to make people feel included.
Some businesses need to create local content to be relevant. Realtors, for instance, can’t rely on posting pictures of houses at random. They have to be locally relevant to establish a brand and garner the interest of serious buyers.
Realty Austin has created a guide to viewing bluebonnets in Austin, a hit with the locals.
If you have a brick-and-mortar setup, you could also create campaigns to encourage people to check in when they visit.
6. Get Fans to Do the Talking
Every marketer harps about user generated content because it’s interactive, relatable, and trusted. But how does one get fans involved in the process of content creation?
There are several ways to get fans to contribute. You could:
- Ask compelling questions.
- Run interesting polls.
- Create contests that require content creation.
- Collect testimonials shared impromptu on social networks.
- Initiate fun activities that involve creating content.
Chobani promised fans a customized cup of yogurt in exchange for stories related to the brand.
Toms vowed to donate funds to charity for every pair of shoes bought, photographed, and shared on Twitter with a specified hashtag.
Post a picture of yourself #withoutshoes and @TOMS will donate a pair of shoes to those in need of a pair of their own. pic.twitter.com/iEdBkYzYI0
— Michael F. DeMart (@michaeldemart) May 12, 2017
7. Stay Responsive
Facebook gives out badges to businesses that respond quickly, and fans expect fast response on social media.
When you respond quickly, you’re also likely to get more engagement on your posts.
Facebook marketing may be about engaging the masses, but in the end it comes down to the fans that you can engage and turn into loyal customers. As Gary Vee has eloquently said, “Giving a shit doesn’t scale.”
People like being attended to personally. Real, valuable engagement boils down to what takes place one-on-one.
Facebook also boosts posts on the feeds of people you have direct conversations with.
Summary
Facebook marketing can help you achieve brand awareness, customer engagement, and sales with the right content and marketing strategy in place. Using the ideas in this post is a great place to begin.
Image Credits
Featured Image: Unsplash
Screenshots by Jessica Davis. Taken June 2017.