With more than 800 million active users, Facebook is the most successful social networking site and certainly one of the most popular brands across the globe. However, it is not a medium that merely connects family and friends. It is a platform that also influences their choice of products and services. As per a survey conducted by Morepace Inc., two thirds of Facebook users agree that it influences their purchase decisions!
Your brand will obviously become more prominent at places where it has maximum possibilities of being viewed by target customers. In online marketing, a business needs to strike the iron not only 'when' it is hot but also 'where' it is hot. Facebook is certainly the hottest social media platform. It is the place where you can be closest to your existing and potential customers and connect personally with them. The number of 'Likes' on your Facebook Page is a very clear indicator of your brand's recognition and its popularity. But marketing via Facebook is not as simple as it seems. A banal business page won't attract the attention of target audience and even when you do attract a lot of fans to your profile, you need to work seamlessly to retain their interest.
When you use Facebook for 'marketing', the ultimate aim behind every post and update is to promote your business products and services. Nevertheless, it needs to be remembered that a 'push strategy' does not work on Facebook. If your followers find their Facebook walls full with offers and updates from your brand, they may not think twice before unsubscribing from your page! This is why it is very important to engage your fans before anything else. You may include interesting questions, surveys, news-stories and even updates on your products and services and just make sure that they are compelling enough to get comments and feedback. Marketing comes in a subtle way through Facebook. Once you engage users, they also do get interested in your business offerings. Also, remember that Facebook is a micro-blogging site and so you should keep your posts crisp and to-the-point. A link can be inserted to direct the interest of users to the details of concerned news.
Another tip for Facebook marketing is to always appreciate the users who 'Like' your page and contribute to your popularity on this social media platform. You can express gratitude through appreciative posts, comments and enthusiastic status updates on your page.
On the whole, the objectives of Facebook marketing can be achieved when a business is customer-friendly, offers valuable information and uses good visuals instead of being overly 'sales-centric' with its Facebook content. You just need to work on it seamlessly to understand the expectations of your audience or consider the input and skills of professional internet marketing agency. In either instance, if you get the approach right, you can make a real success of Facebook marketing for your business.