Facebook marketing strategies are numerous, and some obviously work better than others, and still more work better for specific companies than others do as well. Nonetheless, there’s no arguing that Facebook has become a driving venue for marketing by companies of just about all shapes and sizes in recent years, alongside a plethora of other social networks (Pinterest, Tumblr and Twitter being the other big ones). Why is this?
Well, long story short, it’s because Facebook and other social networks have become a new dimension of our social existence. We’re always there, we have a passive presence there through which we can be reached, and become active in engaging people without our lives being disrupted in the way that a phone call, face to face communication, email or other old fashioned communique have a tendency to do. So, if there are so many Facebook marketing strategies out there of varying effectiveness, and even more variance in what works for whom, then is it even possible to outline some basic strategies that’re one size fits all, and that also fit comfortably?
Yes, yes it is possible, because we’re going to do it right now.
#1 – Please Pay Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain!
It’s very easy for a corporate social network page, especially one on Facebook, to lose its human appeal which is the whole point to Facebook being such a ripe venue for marketing.
Remember to treat your fans on Facebook like they’re friends on your personal account. Establish friendly, trivial discourse with them and engage them on a human level. Treat it like a personal account, just know where the line of propriety is drawn, and you’ll have taken a big step in engaging people like no other marketing venue can.
#2 – Publish, Publish!
Your account isn’t going to accomplish much if you don’t post frequently, so that your fans have something to look at. But, just publishing any old garbage won’t do. Treat it like a small scale blog and content delivery system and post content that informs and engages. It doesn’t always have to relate to your company or even industry – it can be typical engaging Facebook fair like videos or stories that people pass around. But, content is king!
#3 – Discourse is the Spice of Social Life
Remember that despite Facebook being a way to broadcast your life, ideals and yes, to peddle your wares, it’s a giant conversation, too. When you post something related to your company, industry, or something not related but just genuine engaging content, be sure to stick around and wait for your fans to respond. Engage them and respond when they do this.
Remember what we said about being human? Yeah, this kind of reiterates that a tad, but you see the point we’re making here.
#4 – Calls to Action? More Like Calls to Success … Right?
Calls to action are an overlooked aspect of most dynamic digital marketing strategies these days, and that’s a mistake. When you post related material to your industry or your own service or product, be sure to include consistent, simple and engaging calls to action to get people to investigate further.
Take a page out of the books of people who spread viral videos and other non-marketing stuff so well on Facebook. They use calls to action, without even realizing it. Learn from this.
#5 – Make it Easy to Spread the Word
People listen to their colleagues, friends and family more often than some company or brand, which is understandable. That said, word of mouth, getting people to spread the word about you to these other people in their lives is a huge boost to marketing, especially on Facebook.
Incentivizing your fans to invite their Facebook friends through a reward platform like Wildfire, for example, is a good way to go viral with your marketing without even having to have an annoying commercial with a talking animal to accomplish it.
So, these are just a few of the Facebook marketing strategies that work for everyone. There are a lot more, and who knows, maybe we’ll do another piece like this to outline some more down the line. Give these a try, and you’ll suddenly find yourself a real wizard at social marketing.