Many businesses fail to adopt a social media strategy into their marketing plan. The simple reason they do not is because they have lack of knowledge and this is why when it comes to Facebook most businesses just don’t know where to start.  Different campaigns have different goals and below are some strategies that business can use to make Facebook work for them.

Facebook Events

Another way of influencing Facebook pages for business purposes is by directly creating events and posting them on your Facebook page. For example, on your website you have created an event for people to register.  Visitors complete a form on your website and then receive an auto responder email thanking them for their registration and confirming their entry details.

With a Facebook event you use the same principal. However, the big difference is the information will be passed along through friends in a viral way. Once the Facebook fan accepts the event invitation, this will appear as a notification on their news feed on their Facebook profile wall telling their entire network of friends about the event they are attending.

The big difference here is that the event on your website sends a confirmation email but the event on the Facebook page not only confirms attendance, it also lets their entire network see the confirmation and possibly persuade them to attend.  As an admin of the Facebook page you have the functionality to send a message to the entire list of guests invited including attendees, declined and undecided.

 Conclusion

The reality whether you like it or not is that Facebook is here to stay permanently. As a business you need to determine just how you can monetise this particular social network. If you don’t you will be way behind your competitors. With over 850 million users if you don’t reach the customer your competitor will. Facebook is no longer a college student site where friends and family connect. Businesses need to include social networking sites such as Facebook into their overall marketing strategy. So if you have not already, it’s about time to give your online marketing strategy a facelift by joining Facebook!

Many businesses fail to adopt a social media strategy into their marketing plan. The simple reason they do not is because they have lack of knowledge and this is why when it comes to Facebook most businesses just don’t know where to start.  Different campaigns have different goals and below are some strategies that business can use to make Facebook work for them.

Facebook Pages

A Facebook page is different form a Facebook profile. When you create a page you are creating it for your company or organisation. Once the page is created you can promote your products and services as well as connect and engage in real time with your customers which will build a circle of trust and build your online brand awareness.  Many businesses are reluctant to build a Facebook page as they fear it will interfere with their personal profiles.  To set up a business page you do need a personal account on Facebook. However, once set up you can adjust the privacy settings to control what information is seen.

Ok, so once you create the business page you then need to populate it with information such as pictures, videos, and images etc – everything that will reflect your brand. This will also help you online if you are on other networks such as Linked In, Blogs, YouTube and Twitter. An advantage of being on these networks means you can connect accounts and pull information across the networks.

By configuring all of your social network sites together you save time but more importantly you will be spreading the message about your brand to all your subscribers regardless of the social network they are on. But it gets better.  The more your content is syndicated across networks, the better it will rank in the search engines.

The page is created, how do I tell people

Once your page is created you need to spread the word and get the message out that you are on Facebook.  Here are some simple ways of doing that:

• If you have an email marketing list, send out a mail shot to all subscribers letting them know you have a Facebook page.
• Add a Facebook logo on your website telling your customers you can be ‘Liked’ on Facebook
• Run some sort of incentive or contest to get people to join your page

Many businesses fail to adopt a social media strategy into their marketing plan. The simple reason they do not is because they have lack of knowledge and this is why when it comes to Facebook most businesses just don’t know where to start.  Different campaigns have different goals and below are some strategies that business can use to make Facebook work for them.

Facebook advertising

By using Facebook ads, businesses are able to reach their exact audience and connect with them. For example if a business was going to run an advertisement campaign on a search engine such as Google, they can target their audience by telling Google the following:

• If someone searches for this specific phrase (exact, broad, phrase)

• If someone searches for it in this region, radius

However, when it comes to targeting an audience on a social networking site like Facebook the possibilities and criteria are much greater. Using Facebook ads you can target your exact audience according to:

• Gender
• Status – married, single, divorced etc
• Age
• Where they live

These demographic possibilities are not available on search engines. As they do not have the data of who is conducting the search.

How to maximise your ads on Facebook

It is important to remember that when using Facebook for ads for your business you are using push marketing which is much more traditional and is totally different to Google Adwords where people are searching for your product/service. By narrowing down your exact audience you have the opportunity to connect with the exact people you are looking for and more importantly the right customer base for your business. When creating ads on Facebook, bear in mind the following:

1. Visit www.facebook.com/business to get started and determine if there is a target audience on Facebook for your product or service based on the demographics you wish to reach

2. Visit https://www.facebook.com/help/ads-and-business-solutions to learn more about writing optimal ads, character limits, image size and resolutions, and terms and conditions

3. Always tag your ads using parameters in the destination URL, so you can determine using your analytics which ad copy or image is driving the best results.

Nine times out of ten many people will search for a company name, brand name or product on the internet using a search engine before deciding to go ahead and making a purchase. When promoting your brand online it is very difficult to monitor and manage. Just one negative listing in a top search engine can prove harmful to your brand and can even drive away potential customers. What this means for you is instead of your brand going north it will end up going south.

Any business that has an online presence regardless of their product, service or target audience can influence Facebook. Most businesses can use Facebook to create another landing page to tell people about their company. Why is this important? Facebook has a high page rank, is a very trustworthy and reliable source, is constantly updated and even more importantly has millions of pages and links which are all the reasons why Google will rank a Facebook business page. Having a Facebook page is just like having a Wikipedia entry which also ranks highly on Google search results.

When Google gives your page a page one ranking, you push down your competitors down the list as well as any negative listings that can impact your brand. This strategy combined with other social networks can help your business dominate the top position on Google for your branded term.

Connecting with your customers

It has already been established about the amount of time users spend on Facebook each day. Businesses cannot ignore this and have no choice but to use these networks to connect with their customers.  Rather than announce new products on your website and wait for the customer, why not publish the information directly to Facebook and other social networks they are spending time on.

This way you can collect feedback, product reviews, ask for testimonials and push out any promotions you are running. Engage with your customers by asking them to participate in competitions and discussions.

February 4^th 2004 was a day which changed the use of the internet forever. Mark Zuckerberg created and launched Facebook from his Harvard dorm room. Initially started as a Harvard members only site, registration soon spread to other universities and then eventually anyone over the age of 13 with an email address. Fast forward to today and Facebook now has over 850 million active worldwide users. The average Facebook user spends just under one hour a day on the social network.

The business world slowly realised people were spending huge amounts of time on Facebook and banned the use of Facebook during office hours as they saw it as a distraction to employees. However the launch of Twitter and YouTube confirmed the usage of these sites was changing the way people were interacting online.

Businesses had an about turn and realised that to be ahead of the game and keep up with their competitors it was imperative that they started to use these social tools to reach out to their customers by engaging with them as it became apparent their customers were spending a lot of time on these networks.

To date over 1.5 million businesses have Facebook branded pages.  Businesses should ask themselves the following questions to determine how they can monetise Facebook for business purposes:

• What would it mean to an organisation if they had customers talking about their products and services to their friends?
• What would be the value of reaching out to customers to tell them about your new services or promotions?
• What would be the ROI on having your brand exposed and built on social sites like Facebook?

Why Businesses Should Promote Themselves on Facebook

It should be noted that not every business will use Facebook. Most organisations that use the social network will use it in different ways. The first step in determining whether Facebook is suitable for your business is to find out if your customers, clients and prospects are on Facebook. Whether your business is B2B or B2C, Facebook can be a suitable platform where your business can influence.

Here are some reasons why a business should start to engage them on Facebook if they are not already.

Protecting your brand on Facebook

The thing businesses fear the most is people talking negatively about them on Facebook and other social network platforms. Anyone is free to create a Facebook page about your business, create a blog and even upload YouTube videos. However, if a business fails to start a conversation on these platforms they are giving the control to their customers to say what they please. Not only that they are allowing their competitors the chance to damage the company image/brand.

WSI Yorkshire at the Huddersfield Giants

Pictured here from left to right: Daniel Fielding – Project Manager, Steve Harvey Franklin – Director, Ben Prince – Business Development Manager and John-Paul Drake – Search Marketing Consultant.

The WSI Yorkshire – Get Found On Google advertising board will be at all Huddersfield Giants home games except for televised SKY matches when in will be replaced by our electronic advert.

As WSI Yorkshire are a Huddersfield based company, we are proud to be associated with the Huddersfield Giants. WSI Yorkshire are experts in Search Marketing and getting companies found on Google

Just as the Giants make a big impact on the field, WSI can help companies have a big impact on Google, using great web design, search engine optimisation and pay per click advertising.

WSI Yorkshire on the field at the Galpharm Stadium

This is probably the only time any of us will get to stand on the hallowed turf of the Galpharm but we will continue to support the Huddersfield Giants from the stands. Having had a great start to the season, we are all hoping the Giants go all the way and win both Super League and the Challenge Cup.

If you want a digital agency who are as good at search marketing as the Giants are at Rugby League, you need to speak to WSI Yorkshire