Facebook is all over the place and more and more potential customers are on Facebook. So, it is important for your business to be on Facebook, too. However, many business owner are still hesitating to do so. The learning curve in the very beginning is steep and then there is also the limited amount of time that we all have. But here are some of the benefits that you can reap when using Facebook for your business.
Branding – Facebook is a great way to build up a brand – be it nation-wide or local. Name recognition becomes more and more important and so this is a great way to get the name out and established.
Customer Engagement – Social media is one of the top ways to engage with your customers. And Facebook is the largest social network on the planet at the time of this writing. Here you can communicate with your customers and also find out more about them. Knowing what your customers want and expect from you can move your business up quite a bit.
An often over-looked benefit is viral marketing. Word of mouth is and has been the most reliable way to drive business. Facebook can play a huge role in having news go viral. People like to share great content and Facebook makes it easy to do so. Post some exceptional content and you never know – the power of Facebook can drive thousands of visitors to your website.
Many business that use Facebook actively have developed certain marketing strategies to get the Facebook crowd involved. Facebook exclusive content is the magic tool they use. As an example a Facebook exclusive sales deal could be a good step to start out with. For one, the existing Facebook fans of yours will have access to this coupon, but non-Facebook fans and customers would like to get the same deal. They are “motivated” to join you on Facebook and as a result your Facebook fan base is steadily increasing.
The key to a successful Facebook strategy is having your own Facebook Fan page. A fan page can be a custom designed page or some content that is being pulled from your website. You can also mix the 2 for a very unique Facebook experience. And even better, besides your own development cost there are no additional fees involved. Facebook provides this service free of charge.
I will write a little more about Facebook pages and Facebook marketing in upcoming blog postings.