Unfortunately a great number of today’s small and medium business owners don’t see their social media marketing strategies pan out.
Why is it so? It’s because they lack the knowledge and understanding of it, and don’t treat it as what it essentially is – a social media marketing tool. Many think that just setting up a profile and posting occasional updates is enough to get views and boost their business.
The truth is that, the same as with any other marketing strategy, you need to be creative and one-of-a-kind when using it.
It is important that you choose one platform to be your main focus. By spreading your efforts onto various outlets, you might end up not doing well enough for either of them.
If you look at what other people are doing, you’ll see that most of them are using Facebook, as it’s a great choice for small businesses. It enables you to engage with your customers, create custom pages and post photos videos. And most of all, it’s quite user-friendly and reaches far and wide.
Here is how you can make the best out of Facebook as a social media marketing tool:
Make Use Of Facebook Applications
While as a SMB owner you don’t have as big a budget as a global brand does, it doesn’t require all that much money to make use of a great variety of basic Facebook applications.
A service like Pagemodo can provide you with apps that you need as a business. Services like this offer a freemium model which enables you to make use of a number of apps for free. While this doesn’t get you a customized application, you can work your way with visuals and content within the available apps. If you’re short on your budget, this could be a great solution for you.
In order to make use of these apps, you need to customize two things. The first is your welcome page, which is the default landing page that your visitors first come across. These are usually the kinds of pages with the intent to create new fans, by asking people to like your page in order to see more content.
The second thing you need to take care of is your contact us page, which is an essential tool for getting conversions. You should make use of one or two Facebook apps, to make sure that your visitors aren’t simply seeing your Facebook wall, but a page that gives them valuable information and engages with them.
Post Engaging Content
It is essential that your Facebook page consists of content that makes people want to engage with you. You can make use of the feature called Facebook Questions, which enables you to post status updates in the form of polls. Polls are always a great way to interact with people, and it’s a more likely way for your visitors to engage with your page than to comment on your status update about a new promotion.
Next to writing posting great textual content, you should also focus on videos and images. Since people are visual beings, these mediums are more likely to attract attention. Get smart and creative about combining your text with engaging visuals.
Offer Your Visitors Local Content
It’s of no use for your visitors to see a great offer on your page, only to realize that they can’t get it from where they are located. Also, nobody wants to come across a page that offers content in a language that is unfamiliar to them. In order to avoid this, you should geotarget your posts, even if your business isn’t located at various places.
You can also supply your visitors with details that are specific to their location, so that they know how to connect with you. Finally, you can entice your visitors by letting them know about local “walk-in” promotions.
When it comes to languages, Facebook makes it easy for you by enabling you to post status updates specifically for users that have particular language settings. This will make users that, for example, speak French, only see the content that is written in their native language.
The way you can post status updates for particular areas is to choose “custom”, then input specific targeting information into the fields that pop up, and make sure that it’s posted for the right audience.
Create Invite-only Groups For Your Most Engaged Audience
What makes Facebook so useful is that it’s your tool for creating a community.
One of the best ways to do this is to create invite-only groups where your most engaged customers can come together, discuss and learn about what you have to offer. If you don’t feel like starting one of your own, you can also join a group that is highly relevant to your business.
When it comes to your own group, you need to make sure that there are some ground rules for posting. Make sure that your privacy settings are right, and invite the most engaged customers to join. Then start valuable conversations about your industry. This is important, as you don’t want to only promote your product. You need to educate your audience, and spark their interest, before getting them to buy from you.
A great thing about having your own group is that you have control over it, so you can easily get rid of any spam. The fact about groups though, is that you have to be committed to them. You need to always be present, welcome your audience, and drive them to engage in discussions.
Reward Your Loyal Followers
A great way to really make people engaged to discuss things on your Facebook page is to offer rewards to your loyal followers. Nothing works as well as making a member of your audience feel special. Create events that are specifically tailored for your Facebook fans. Pick someone that is particularly active on your page and do something one-of-a-kind for them. This will benefit you a lot in the long run, and truly get people to talk about you, spreading the word about your business far and wide.
In Summation
Your Facebook efforts need to focus on two aspects: engaging with as many people that you can, and driving them to interact with you daily. It is essential that you come up with a good social media marketing strategy in order to do this right. While getting a lot of likes is a great thing, people won’t be interested long enough if you’re not engaging enough and only presenting them with your promotions and offers. Always thing quality over quantity, and make sure that every visitor counts.
[Recommended reading: Does Your Business Need Google My Business in 2022?]
[Image credits – Main Photo by RODNAE Productions; other images, videos, infographics or screen prints are from their respective websites and/or social platforms]
Sam Cyrus is CEO and co-founder of GWM SEO Agency , a Digital Marketing agency from Australia. Sam is also a creative writer and likes to share his insights on entrepreneurship, business, online marketing, SEO and social media. He currently collaborated with Nirmal Web Developer Sydney.
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