Is it possible for an innovation to be both incredibly significant… and completely over-hyped?
Yes— and Facebook proves it.
Facebook marketing is absolutely a game changer for business.
And yet many internet marketers make Facebook out to be a “magic pill” or a perfect, complete marketing solution for every single business, product, or campaign. If this is what you’re expecting from Facebook, you’re going to be disappointed.
So what can a Facebook presence really accomplish for your business?
1) Measurable Brand Exposure. Your Facebook presence allows you to regularly post content for your audience to see. This content can be in the form of a text-only post, an image, a video, or a link, to name a few. This gives you the opportunity to build your brand and connect with your audience. And the best part is, it’s all trackable. Within hours of creating a post, you can know exactly how many people have seen it, how many of them have clicked on it, and how many have shared it with their Facebook friends. This gives you the ability to figure out exactly what’s working, and what’s not— and fine-tune your strategy to ensure that your content is resonating with your audience.
2) Traffic to Your Website or Blog. By posting content on your Facebook business page, you have the opportunity to drive traffic anywhere… including to your own site. Whether it is posting a link to a recent blog entry, a special offer, or a particular landing page, you can direct your audience wherever you’d like them to go. Be careful, however—if all you’re doing is “spamming” your audience with self-promoting posts, they’re going to learn to ignore you. The key is to provide value by posting helpful or entertaining information, and sprinkling in promotional posts sparingly.
3) A New Point of Contact with Customers and Prospects. It’s important to maintain “top of mind” awareness with your customers, but this can be a challenge if you typically go long periods of time without seeing your customers or clients. An accountant, for instance, may only speak to his clients a few times each year. Connecting on Facebook allows you to continue to strengthen your relationship and your brand positioning, even with customers you haven’t seen face-to-face in months.
4) Potential for “Viral” Marketing. The inter-connected nature of Facebook offers the ability not only to reach your immediate audience—but also their circle of friends, and their circle’s circle of friends, and so on. This is because when a “fan” of your business “likes” your content or shares it, their friends will see this activity. If it’s compelling content, they may well decide to share it with their friends, and so forth. This phenomenon explains how seemingly random pictures or videos can reach an audience in the millions. Now, it’s unlikely that your content will achieve exposure on this scale, but the same concept allows you to gradually increase your audience and reach more potential customers. If you’re providing valuable content, the word will spread.
As you can see, there’s a lot to gain for many businesses by marketing on Facebook. (Note: if you are primarily a business-to-business seller, Facebook probably isn’t for you. LinkedIn is a much better platform for marketing to professionals and business owners.) But even with all of the benefits Facebook marketing provides, it’s not a magic solution. It’s certainly a game-changer for businesses, but it’s still just a “tool” in your marketing toolkit. Contact us today if you’d like to learn more!
Spotlight Branding
Latest posts by Spotlight Branding (see all)
- Does the Election Actually Hurt Your Law Firm’s Business? - November 1, 2024
- Best of LFMM: Scary Legal Marketing Mistakes feat John Hinson - October 31, 2024
- What Scares Me: The Scary Reality of Mental Health for Lawyers - October 30, 2024