Using Facebook as an online marketing tool. Part 1
In this guide, I’m going to explain to you the beauty of internet-marketing through Facebook in very simple and easy-to-understand steps. Some of this information you may indeed already know, but to maximize the marketing potential of Facebook, you need to understand it all.
This is part 1. Part 2 will be published within the next week so keep checking back as this really is something that will help you grow your online business presence. Best of all- it’s totally free!
Understanding the basics of using Facebook as a marketing tool
One of the most important things that you need to understand from the off, is that there are 3 different types of pages on Facebook. I cannot stress enough, how important it is to use the right type of page.
- People have ‘profiles’
- People join ‘groups’
- Businesses have ‘pages’
The next thing you need to take note of is that people have ‘friends’, whereas businesses have ‘fans’. At least they used to; but recently Facebook changed that- instead of becoming a ‘fan’ of a page now- you simply ‘Like’ it.
To keep this guide as simple as possible; I’m going to stick to the term ‘Fans’, rather than ‘People who Like your page’.
Now that we’ve distinguished that businesses need a ‘Page’-, I’m going to explain the main reason for this & that’s ever so simple; A ‘page’ allows you to keep your personal Facebook ongoings separate from your business related stuff. That’s important! Let’s face it- Bill gates doesn’t let all his business associates see his (quite possibly) embarrassing holiday photos, or links to his family members/ personal friends. Not only that, but I’m pretty sure your friends & family don’t want to be bombarded with your advertising day in, day out,. The last reason I’m going to give you is this- it’s the way that Facebook wants you to use the site. If they find out you’re using a Facebook ‘profile’ or ‘Group’ for your business; they will shut you down pretty promptly.
Why register a Facebook page?
Well, quite simply; it’s one of the best ways to tap into the world’s biggest online audience, they’re easy to use, and best of all- they’re free.
How it works
Visitors become a fan/ subscribe to your page by clicking the ‘Like’ button. You can then reach out to them whenever you want, for free.
You can post photos, videos, & status updates to your wall- in turn, any of these things will appear on the homepage of all your fans. ‘Groups’ do not offer this very important feature. You can also by mass-message all of your fans which in turn, sends them an email with a link directing them back to your page.
Don’t forget- if your page has 1,000 fans- that’s 1,000 fans seeing your ‘advert’ on their homepage each & every time you add a photo, video, status update or link, etc!
Growing your fan base to maximize your target audience
The joy of this part is- your fan page will grow by itself. How quickly it grows is determined by a few factors- some of which I’ll outline below but first let me explain why it will grow by itself. Let’s use Tom as our fictional demo character (well, actually he’s not that fictional, because that’s my name!). ..
When Tom becomes a fan of your page (by clicking the ‘like’ button); this action will then be added to his friends’ homepage/ newsfeed, like so…
Each of those little squares highlighted in the image above, represents the fan (Like) pages that Tom’s become a fan (Liked) of recently.
Now then, let’s assume Tom has 800 Facebook friends… easy math- That’s potentially 800 more people that are going to see a link to your fan page, and potentially 800 more people that may click ‘Like’ and become a fan. If they do- the process is then repeated to their friends’ news feed/ homepage… it’s a never-ending scenario.
OK Let’s face it- I can almost guarantee you that all 800 of Tom’s friends won’t ‘Like’ your fan page. However, Syncapse recently done a survey and they then stated that a whopping 38% of people stated that they would be likely to become a fan (Like) a brand or business that a close friend or family member become a fan of (Like). So a quick bit of math- 38% of 800 is= 304. That’s a huge percentage, and just goes to show you how quickly a fan page can be grown!
One last bit of simple math here…
More fans= Larger target audience= More customers= More earning potential. Simple.
Let’s not forget- once someone becomes a fan of your page, they’re going to see all of your page updates- photos, videos, special offers & discounts, & so on. You only need to get them to ‘Like’ your page once and providing you don’t inundate them with spam- you’ve got them for good.
Want to know more?
Whilst I hope this article has given you a bit more insight into the world of using Facebook as a totally free marketing tool, there’s much more to learn! In the next part of my guide, I’m going to cover some other aspects that will help you keep your fans, teach you how to grow your fan-base even further, & also some pointers on things to avoid- things that cause many marketing campaigns to fail. Keep an eye on our website for part 2 which will be published later in the week…
Edit: Part 2 can be found by clicking here.
Please feel free to leave a comment below, with a link to your Facebook page.
