Facebook is the one of the most popular online community, consisting of over 175 million users from across the world, organized in networks of cities, regions, colleges and companies. If you are an online marketer, you cannot ignore the potential of Facebook to grow your business.
Users of Facebook are a part of various networks. They communicate with friends and colleagues, professional acquaintances, customers and partners through messages, videos, photos and activity updates. You can send virtual pokes or virtual gifts to your friends, post messages on a virtual wall and you can even play chess or scrabble over several days asynchronously. Here are some tips to leverage the site’s marketing capabilities.
1. Facebook Groups: Start a group around your brand or company. This will create an online place for customers, partners, prospects, and your friends to know about your products and services. You can post photos, videos, and links and can even send out news and updates to all the members in the group. The best part is that you can create as many groups as you like for free.
2. Notes: These are like blogs wherein you can share information about your product features, testimonials of satisfied customers, answers to frequently asked questions and tips on how to use your products for the best results. Ensure that you keep posting information at regular intervals as that will give your brand a dynamic image.
3. Marketplace: You can post classified advertisements for people in your network. There is no charge for this. However, if you want the ads to be seen by people outside your network then there is a small charge of $1 per ad per network. Ensure that you do not spam the system with multiple insertions.
4. Social Ads: If you have some money to spend, you can pay for user clicks or some specified user action. This is a highly effective way of generating leads for your products since you can target your ads to specific demographics like age range, location, education level, relationship status and workplaces. There is also a real time facility to see the effect of your ads and to tweak your budget accordingly.
5. Sponsored applications: If you have a larger budget and want to explore creative advertising, you can consider hiring some developers to build customized applications. For instance, there are soft-drink companies who have build ‘drink sharing’ applications and lens manufacturers have built ‘winking’ applications. This can be a fun way to build your brand image.
There is much more that Facebook offers. All you have to do is to start with your profile and slowly and steadily build up an online presence with a growing network. Leverage this ultimate marketing tool to the maximum.