Facebook is growing rapidly and boasts millions of users with several millions new users each week. This makes it a ripe opportunity to use it to boost your business
The first step to promote your business with Facebook is to create a business profile. Facebook offers you the ability to separate your personal and professional social networking activities and offers a number of settings, which you can adjust to meet your needs.
To set your privacy settings, visit http://www.facebook.com/privacy/
How to Use Facebook to Promote A Business
Before you start promoting your business, make sure you figure out who your audience is. Spending time to promote your business to the wrong audience will backfire.
I recently took Rachel’s Facebook Growth Strategies Course and revived one of my pages I let go last year. I started with almost 8000 likes, and no engagement, and after 6 weeks, I have over 13000 likes and a very engaged audience (lots of of likes, shares and comments on all my posts)
Some of the things I learned:
- figure out who my audience is
- ways to target that audience
- how often to post on my page for maximum effect
- the value of a viral post and how to create one
- how larger pages can benefit me, even if they aren’t directly promoting my page
- schedule posts ahead of time in an organized fashion and recycle posts that did well (this will change your life!!)
- how to use Facebook ads to grow my page without losing my shirt
Want to explode your Facebook page? Rachel is reopening this course on March 6th for 3 short days. Get on the waiting list here, and get her course as soon as it opens.
How To Use Facebook Applications For Your Business
Facebook offers a number of applications including creating and joining groups. Adding and joining groups is another way to connect with a very specific target audience. If, for example, you are a dog trainer and your market are new dog owners, you could create a group for puppy owners and share helpful tips, links and information with them.
The group function allows you to also see the groups your friends and associates are participating in so you can make the decision about whether or not it’s a group you too want to participate in.
There are a large number of applications and with Facebook continually growing new applications will be added every day.
Applications to consider include:
• Twitter – Allows you to publish your Twitter posts on Facebook.
• BlogNetwork – This application is a great way to publicize your blog and gain new followers.
• Advertising – Facebook allows you to advertise on their site and to also sell ad space on your profile/fan pages.
• Facebook Pages – A Facebook Page is a public profile that makes it possible for you to essentially create a business profile page right on the site. You can share products, sell ad space and market to your audience.
You can also invite people to like your page (you’ll learn a really new trick in Rachel’s course 😉) . Each person who liked your page is now someone you can market to directly by sending them promotions, information, downloads and so on – much like you would an opt-in list.
Want to see some proof? Take a peek at these case studies for Rachel’s course. Some of them will blow your mind!
• Mobile Facebook – allows you to use Facebook from your mobile phone. Great for sending on the fly messages but also good to remember that many people use this feature on their mobile phone and you can market to them specifically.
Facebook is an active, thriving and growing community and it’s not just for teenagers anymore. In fact, middle-aged men and women are one of the largest growing communities online and they’re a lucrative audience.
The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff
Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day
