Marketing on Facebook is fast becoming one of the most popular methods of advertising a business, but how do you go about this if you don’t know all that much about advertising in the first place? Is it enough to simply type out a quick message to your fans online? Should you be investing in paid advertising? The more you know about marketing via this medium, the easier your choices will become.
Become Someone’s Friend
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First and foremost, when you are choosing to advertise via Facebook, you need to use this platform to reach out to people. Social media was first and foremost a way to stay connected with people that you know and possibly even to make new friends, and so this shouldn’t change just because the page is being used for business purposes; in fact, that’s the point, isn’t it? Before you put in any time or effort advertising to the public, you need to make sure that when they arrive on your page, they will “like” your business and this will eventually lead to a sense of brand loyalty, if you take the right steps.
Traditional Advertising
You don’t need to advertise on a billboard to get peoples’ attention; these days, you can market via Facebook and you will reach the same number of people, possibly even more.
Megan Marrs explains it this way;
Facebook offers its own form of advertising with Facebook ads, which appear in the side columns of the Facebook site. These classic ads are referred to more specifically as Marketplace Ads.
This option is a great way to get exposure for your business and it is much more effective because this sort of advertising is targeted based on factors such as education, age, location and even interests. Another big benefit is that you can set a budget so that you don’t spend more than you have on these sorts of advertisements.
Contests
In recent months, you have most likely seen an increase in contests taking place via Facebook; many of these give people the chance to win something advertised by the business. It should be noted, however, that it is against Facebook regulation to host a competition on Facebook itself in exchange for “likes”, for example, which is why people often need to make use of third party apps to run their competitions.
Offer Coupons Online
Whether you are advertising a store, restaurant or even a spa, a great way to get people interested in your business, the experts at Social Media Examiner state, is to;
Offer an incentive that drives foot traffic-offer a coupon or discount deal on a tab. To get even more long-term marketing value, integrate an email opt-in with the special offer.
You need to give people a reason to interact with your Facebook page, other than telling them how great your product or service is. With so much marketing already being thrown at people, they are not likely going to willingly submit themselves to even more without a good reason for doing so.
Word Of Mouth Via Facebook
Ask any business owner and they will tell you that the cheapest, most effective method of advertising is via word of mouth and Facebook is taking this to a whole new level with sponsored stories. These stories are created when people interact on Facebook, and they are shown on their news-feed for all of their friends to see.
Marketing on Facebook has changed the face of advertising, and this means that people need to get to know this whole industry all over again. Still, the ease with which you can market via the social platform means that laymen can be just as successful as professionals in advertising to the public, as long as they know how it is done.