Facebook All-in-One For Dummies, 2nd Edition (2014)

Book V. Marketing Your Business

For tips on creating a successful Facebook ad, visit www.dummies.com/extras/facebookaio.

Contents at a Glance

Chapter 1: Building a Network of Influence

Chapter 2: Running a Social Marketing Campaign

Chapter 3: Using Insights to Track Your Success

Chapter 4: Ads, Promotions, and Offers

Chapter 5: Identifying Your Target Audience

Chapter 1. Building a Network of Influence

In This Chapter

Building a loyal following for your business

Connecting with friends and followers

Adding Facebook to marketing campaigns

Getting more business page posts from friends and followers

Social media is about connecting with friends and followers. When marketing a business in the Facebook world, people often focus on how many friends and followers they have. The fact is, if you have friends and followers but have no influence over them, you might be wasting your time and marketing dollars.

Success on Facebook is about building an audience that is listening. Better yet, it’s about building a network of influence, in which you influence not just the people in your own audience but their friends and connections as well. In the following sections, we give you practical advice on how to increase engagement with your current customers and how to attract new customers.

Although this chapter focuses on building your business using your business page, much of our advice is useful for individuals who are just looking to up their game on Facebook and have a more popular personal timeline. We want to be clear, though, that if you’re promoting your business or branding your business on Facebook, you should abide by the Facebook terms of service and create a business page instead of using your personal timeline for your business.

The Importance of Engagement

When people Like your business page, they value a connection with your company, at least to some degree. That connection has to have some meaning. The more you can humanize your brand, the more value you will get out of your marketing efforts. This is achieved through engagement.

You can’t build engagement without some human effort behind your Facebook marketing. You can automate a lot, but at the end of the day, people are looking to connect with other people. When customers feel that your company values the personal connection to them, they are more likely to do business with you.

Don’t forget about being top of mind. If customers have several choices when buying a product or service, all things being equal, whoever they remember gets the business. This is one big reason why engagement on your business page is so important. Consumers tend to have a higher level of trust for a brand if they’re more familiar with it by name or experience. This certainly presents a good case for having a presence on Facebook, but all the more for having an active presence where you engage with your consumers. Figure 1-1 shows an example of how Amy’s Kitchen reached out to its customers to meet a need. Customers commented and felt connected to the brand.

Figure 1-1: Creating meaningful connections.

Facebook and other social media sites have fostered a social media–driven world where people expect to be able to interact with their favorite brands. Some of this will happen automatically if you have wide enough name recognition. Some will happen only as you nurture your customer connections. When you nurture those customer connections, they become better customers and recommend you to their friends.

Building friends and followers for your business

We’re sorry to tell you that you won’t have a successful experience with Facebook for your business if you don’t make the effort to build an audience. Building an audience starts with inviting people to Like your business page. The next steps are to get some interaction from the people that Like your business page and turn them into loyal followers who will tell their friends about you.

Here are a few ways to start building a following for your business:

· Start in house: When you first launch your business page, one of the most important things to do is get the ball rolling. People like to be where the party is, and having a starting group helps! Look to the people already involved with your company. Start by inviting everyone in your company to Like the business page. From there, each employee or partner can ask their personal friends to Like the business page as well.

· Ask and invite: No one is going to find your business page if they don’t know to look for it, so it’s a good idea to take every opportunity to share Facebook with your customers. It seems too easy, but a simple “Please Like our business page” really does work. Incorporate a link to your business page in your e-newsletter reminding your customers to Like your business page on Facebook. You’ll get a good number of people who are happy to click the Like button and be the first among your Facebook audience. If you hand customers a receipt, put your Facebook address on the receipt, or hand them a card with your Facebook address. At the very least, remind them verbally to find you on Facebook and be sure to Like the business page.

Keep the ticker in the back of your mind, too. When you have several people Liking your business page at the same time, the ticker shows more Facebook Like activity, increasing the chance that a friend of someone who Likes your page will also Like your business page.

· Use custom tabs: A custom static HTML iframe tab enables you to have content that is only for people who Like your page. When you create a custom iframe tab, you have the opportunity to create more incentives for becoming a friend or follower (find out more about creating custom tabs in Book IV, Chapter 4). For example, you can create a tab that invites potential fans to Like your business page and then download a coupon, a white paper related to your niche, or even a short e-book. Giving potential friends and followers a reason to Like your business page is easy with a custom tab.

· Use contests and sweepstakes: By giving something away, or asking a question with the winner receiving a prize, or using games or any other creative way to get engagement, your friends and followers feel more involved with your brand and business. And those who don’t already Like your page may be drawn in when they see the activity of their friends who do Like your business page in their news feed or ticker.

Facebook has strict guidelines for hosting contests and sweepstakes on its platform. Be sure and read Chapter 4 in this minibook to become familiar with the guidelines. Breaking the rules could mean losing your business page!

· Make a difference: A business was launching a business page for the first time. In an effort to create some buzz and get a burst of new followers, the customer launched a campaign to donate a dollar to a local charity for every Like on its business page within a certain time. The charity was promoting the campaign, and so were all the company’s employees. The customer increased his Facebook audience by giving potential followers a compelling reason to Like his business page.

Connecting with your friends and followers

You need to connect with your friends and followers, but how do you keep up if you have a large audience? You can connect with your Facebook friends and followers in many ways; you’re not just limited to making comments and posts.

The following list provides a few ideas that you can use to connect with your friends and followers:

· Ask questions. It’s not about you; it’s about your audience. The best thing you can do for your Facebook engagement is to ask questions of your Facebook friends and followers. When you give them a chance to talk, not only do they take a step in engaging with you, but their activity shows up in their friends' ticker. When their friends see that activity, they may be more likely to check out your business page and become a follower.

· Encourage them to check back later. You want your friends and followers to be repeat visitors. Sometimes it’s just a matter of letting your fans know that more is coming tomorrow. How about posing a riddle of the day, and offering the answer the next day, along with a new riddle? With your business page’s Pin feature, you can pin the daily riddle, question, or discussion to the top of your business page. Or you could create a new cover photo each week with a new question. If your fans come to expect a new cover photo on a certain day each week, you encourage them to visit your business page regularly.

· Comment on other business pages as your business page. A one-sided conversation isn't much fun, is it? It’s important to remember that if you want people to interact with you, you also need to interact with them. You can even comment as your business page rather than your personal timeline. See Book IV, Chapter 2 for an explanation of how to do that.

Figure 1-2 shows how Jamie commented on another business page’s status update as his company Crowdshifter. By commenting as his business page instead of himself, he’s introducing his brand to potential followers.

You can’t comment on personal timelines when you’re using Facebook as your page; you can interact only on another business page. (We know it sounds confusing, but once you see it in action, you’ll get it! Book IV, Chapter 2 explains this feature in detail.)

The value of commenting as your business page is making mutual connections by connecting with other businesses and building connections with some of their followers. This may lead to some of their followers choosing to check out your business page to find out more about your business.

Figure 1-2: Commenting as a business page.

· Be a real person. It’s okay to let your personality shine through on your business page. Be funny, be serious, be professional. We’re sure you know your goals and your audience and know what they can handle. Bring a little of yourself to your business page!

If you have multiple people in your office who update the business page, have them sign their updates with their name. Your followers will start to recognize your employees (and their personalities) and will feel a stronger connection with your entire company.

If you have a large audience, you can’t always talk one-on-one with them all. Start by focusing on the influencers and those who are most engaging. You'll still project a human brand to your audience, even to those who aren’t commenting directly with you.

Integrating Facebook in Marketing Campaigns

If you own a business, you know that finding and increasing your audience is essential for long-term success because those connections are the ones that lead to repeat business and referrals. As your Facebook audience grows, take advantage of the opportunity to build loyalty with those who connect with your company.

With a successful Facebook marketing strategy, you still use traditional marketing tactics. If Facebook proves to be a strong platform for your company, use outside marketing campaigns as a tool to drive new connections to Facebook. Do this by making Facebook the ultimate call to action. If your primary goal is to build an audience for long-term sales and customer loyalty, a call to action that leads them to Facebook is ideal.

Promoting Facebook via traditional advertising

You can advertise your company or product in many ways. With traditional advertising, your goal is to be seen by potential customers so that they know who you are and will choose to buy your product. Advertising is always more memorable if the person you reach takes some kind of action.

In addition to creating a memory, creating a database is important too. Advertising can be expensive. Not only do you want customers to buy your product today, you want them to buy again tomorrow. For example, after a car dealership sells a car to a customer, the next challenge is to get the customer to refer new customers to the dealership. And the next challenge is to get the customer back for service on his or her vehicle. If you can convince this loyal customer to connect with your business page, the person becomes part of your database from which you can ask for repeat business or encourage referrals. This is why promoting your business page within your traditional marketing is so valuable.

The following list gives tips to promote your business page using traditional marketing:

· Billboard ads: If your marketing campaign is going to reach a broad audience in a concentrated city (or several cities), a billboard may be part of your marketing strategy. Driving people to your business page from a billboard is challenging. Billboards only allow for a simple message, and a long URL might be difficult. If your company name is unique, it might be more effective to invite people to find you by searching your company name. Do this by telling people, “Search for us by name on Facebook.” A more common name may make that difficult though. For example, blazefly might be fairly unique and therefore easy to find in a search. On the other hand, something like Bob’s Car Care may be the name of several places and it may be difficult to find the correct one in a Facebook search.

Keep in mind that Facebook search is literal. If you search for blaze fly instead of blazefly, you won’t find the business page. The capitalization isn’t important, but the spaces are. As a business page owner, you want to be sure to title your business page in the way that you think people will search for it.

· Print ads and handouts: Someone who discovers your company in a favorite magazine or receives a handout has a little more time to read your message. Print ads and handouts are perhaps the easiest ways to get a message across because you can provide ample information. Often times, incorporating the Facebook logo and colors helps to make it more clear that your business page can be found on Facebook.

· Get your free sample: People love getting free samples before they decide to make a purchase. One really powerful way to build a database is by offering a free sample to anyone who requests it. You can create an iframe tab that hosts a contact form where people submit their contact information to receive a free sample.

Make sure that the actual form is just in the Like-only section, so that people have to Like your business page to access it. (You can find out how to do this in Chapter 4 of this minibook.)

· The secret password: If you’ve found a website that makes sense for you to advertise on, driving people with a good call to action is critical. You don’t just want them to see the ad; you want them to click and take action. Imagine your company is a credit counseling service, and you’re offering a free initial credit evaluation session. Your advertisement could say, “Click to go to our business page and get the secret password to redeem your free initial session.” With this, you have the opportunity to use a fans-only iframe tab that provides the password. You get people who are interested in your services, and they become Facebook followers at the same time.

Having a memorable URL

When you share your Facebook URL as a call to action, it needs to be memorable. For example, if you are advertising on a billboard, your audience has a few seconds to read your ad. If the URL is a long destination, you may not get any traffic.

Make sure that you have a custom Facebook username (also called a vanity URL) for your business page. Book IV, Chapter 1 shows you how to create your own vanity URL.

After you have a vanity URL for your business page, it’s a lot easier to tell people where to find you. If your company name is not conducive to being memorable in the form of a Facebook URL, try a typical web URL and redirect it to your business page. You can even redirect the URL to a specific tab, because Facebook tabs each have a unique URL.

You can buy a URL from NameCheap (www.namecheap.com), among other places. These services always have a simple function to allow you to direct your web address to any other page.

When creating your marketing materials, use the proper URL address. Make sure it’s the URL you see when looking at your business page the way your fans view it, not your home screen where you look at your news feed.

Using apps to build influence

Using third-party apps can help strengthen your engagement with your friends and followers because you can customize specific functions and characteristics into your business page. Apps can provide a variety of functions if you have the resources to develop them. (You can discover the basics of developing apps in Book VI.) For example, if you provide efficient heating and air equipment, you could build a home efficiency calculator app that allows users to find out how they can lower their heating bills. The idea with this is to generate more influence with your fans by providing value.

Apps should, of course, be relevant to your business and the people you want to attract. For example, if your business is an arcade, how about having a game that fans can play right on your business page? If you aren’t ready to invest in developing (or even repurposing) a customized app, you can use several simpler apps to customize your business page and provide value. You can find out about some of the ways to customize your business page in Book IV, Chapter 4.

Outsourcing your Facebook management

When running a business (especially as the owner), you have to balance your many tasks and determine the best use of your time. The question comes up frequently, “Is it okay to outsource social media to an expert?” You will always be best at serving your customers, but there are arguments for both sides of this conversation.

Outsourced social media marketing

When you outsource your social media (such as content creation and daily management), your biggest benefit is that you can hire someone who is familiar with the tools and how to effectively use them. Social media consultants usually end up in the business because they enjoy social media and are natural at executing social networking and communications.

The negative is that they are likely serving several clients at the same time and can’t spend all their time on your company. Another negative is that they may not be fully familiar with your company, its culture, and its goals. It may take an outside resource weeks or months to learn the nitty-gritty of your business and your audience the way you do.

Finally, be sure you’re working with a person or agency that truly understands the space. We’ve seen many agencies that say they can handle a social media campaign but either aren’t aware of Facebook’s basic terms of service or ignore them because they’ve seen others ignore them. If you’re building a reputation on Facebook, you want to be sure the people helping you aren’t hurting your brand’s integrity.

In-house social media marketing

In-house people often find that their jobs can call them to many different activities. It’s rare when someone can direct his or her full attention to just social media engagement, especially if the responsible party is the owner of the business. A business owner almost always has more immediate “fires” to put out, so social media management gets put on the back burner. For this reason, in-house Facebook management needs to come with discipline.

The connections and influence you build yield great long-term value. The biggest benefit of managing social media in-house is that you are always your best advocate and the best person to connect with your customers.