Facebook has continued to be the reigning champ of all social media sites, as it is the number one spot for connecting friends and sharing online content. More than just a site we go to for meeting friends, Facebook has also grown into a fantastic venue for businesses to properly market themselves through interaction with self-promotion and customers. Here we look at the most powerful ways you can use Facebook for marketing purposes.
Making the most of your Facebook Business Page
A Facebook Business Page is a great free marketing tool for all businesses. These pages will let businesses properly identify themselves to customers, not just through listing services and product offerings, but also through sharing posts, images, and links on a customisable page to give a better sense of a business’ character and personality.
Facebook ads
Facebook will offer its own forms of advertising with its Facebook ads service, which will appear in the side columns of the Facebook website. These classic Facebook ads are typically named more specifically as Marketplace ads. They include a headline with an image, copy, a click-through link to either a Facebook app, Facebook page, or outside website.
Implementing Facebook advertising into your overall marketing strategy is a possible technique for driving website clicks or increasing likes. Facebook advertising features will include demographic targeting, setting ad budgets, ad testing, ad performance measurements, and the ability to advertise for a specific area.
Hosting contests
Running promotions, sweepstakes, or Facebook contests is another marketing tactic that can increase brand awareness and number of fans. When conducting your Facebook contest, be extra aware that contests cannot be hosted through the Facebook platform itself. Businesses have to use third-party apps for creating their own Facebook contest, then direct its users to the app from their own Facebook page.
Promoted posts
Facebook Promoted Posts will let Facebook page owners pay a standard flat rate in order to have their own individual Facebook posts reach a certain number of users, increasing the reach of a specific post and the impressions. Promoted Posts gives you more of a chance of being seen on a specific user’s news feed, and since they are easy to set up, they are a no brainer really.
Sponsored stories
Sponsored Stories are a type of Facebook ad that purposefully shows a particular user’s interactions, such as a Facebook like, for example, to the user’s friends. Sponsored Stories seek to capitalise on the marketing concept of ‘word of mouth.’ If a particular user sees that three of his own friends like a particular page, he is far more inclined to pay attention. The goal of Sponsored Stories is ultimately to have a user take exactly the same action as their friends; in an ideal world, this is what happens!
Facebook Open Graph
Facebook Open Graph allows businesses to label a user’s action within the app. Billions of interactions are posted with Facebook Open Graph every day. Businesses can create third-party apps which connect to a user and post a particular notice on Facebook when a user performs a specific action within the app. Facebook’s Open Graph allows for creative interactive options outside of the standard ‘comment’ and ‘like.’
Facebook Exchange
Facebook Exchange lets advertisers take advantage of retargeting ads on Facebook through bidding real-time. Advertisers can actually target audiences based on data from web history, especially when a user visit a product page on the website of a particular retailer.
If you like what you’ve heard here and want to utilise elements of social media for your digital marketing strategy, click here. If Facebook is something you’re interested in, contact us today!