An Introduction to Facebook for Business

When Mark Zuckerberg first launched Facebook 13 years ago in February 2004. There was little indication at the time that it would change the face of Social Media, networking, and become such a dominant force in our everyday lives. Facebook has an average 1.23 billion active users logging in each day!

With this in mind, the odds are in the favour of the entrepreneur who chooses to fully utilise what Facebook has to offer.

So, how can you create your very own online marketing strategy to allow you to reach the ideal clients every day in order to grow and scale your business with ease?

 

First things first,

When using Facebook as a marketing tool, it's important to have a thorough plan in place to be able to utilise both your time and cash resources.

The reach of your content stretches to various areas of the site, and it's ultimately your decision on where you would choose to spend the resources.

Whilst Facebook does assist in the creation of your content, you can save yourself frustration and time if you know your niche and your client. Knowing these things will allow you to effectively place content in front of them that grabs them, and showcases your product and service.

Thinking Strategy

Depending on your situation and what you want for your efforts, it might be best to change the social media strategy that you're already using. The time is now to step back, look at what is working, and look at where you can build value and improve.

Take this time to also look at what isn't working - look at what is costing you the most money that you aren't seeing return to your business in some way.

The rule of thumb here is that before you contribute your next post, content or advertisement on Facebook, take a moment and go through the various sections related to your business and ensure that everything is ready for further awareness, engagement or interest.

The different areas of Facebook to consider are:

Your Personal Profile,

Your Business Page,

Any related Groups,

and last but not least...

Your Facebook Ads.

It's important to remember Facebook is a Global Networking site, part of having a successful business is to minimise bad rapport and maintain a strong reputation to increase future prospects trusting your business and not looking elsewhere for their needs.

Below you will find different sections of Facebook outlined including the pros and cons of each area

 

Personal Profile

Description: The personal Facebook profile is a great way to reach existing friends and also make new ones, using your personal profile as a way to reach an audience for your business is definitely not for everyone and every business.

If you are someone who's business is closely related to their personal life, perhaps in fitness, coaching or self development, people are going to understand the business being included here.

If your line of work is vastly different to the majority of what people include and post on their personal page, you could try a few attempts to see how posts, links etc. are engaged.

Pro's:

• Posts go to existing friends who are likely to have similar interests as yourself.
• Engagements can be high.

Cons:

• Not all followers can see content.
• Capped friend list limit of 5000
  

 

Facebook Pages

Description: Your business's Facebook page will be your primary destination on posting all related content for your business, depending on the type of business you are running your overall strategy and content will very.

We will be providing a 12 week business breakthrough course that will cover different strategies based on your current situation and where you're heading.

Pros:

• Free
• Unlimited amount of followers
• Builds a Community of Interested prospects.
• Customisation/ configuration options.
• Possible e-store.

Cons:

• Not all followers can see content.
• Can be difficult to increase follower numbers

 

Facebook Groups

Description: Groups are similar to Facebook pages with some differences, you can still create events, post images, videos, and updates but also allow shared documents.

Groups are useful to gather members with similar interests to interact with one another. As an admin you have control on privacy, who can join or if it is closed invite only group.

Pro's

• Ability to control, who can join / invite only
• Set parameters in the description
• Community based environment.
• Posts with highest engagement appear closer to the top

Cons

• They might require ongoing maintenance as the admin such as regular posts, engagement, questions etc.
• Dispute Resolution
• Innovation - offer incentives.

 

Facebook ads

Facebook ads that are setup properly for the right strategy can be the best way to advertise a product, service or content as well as send traffic to your page, website and a range of other distributing services.

Pro's:

• Immense amount of targeting options.
• wide range of functions: Visitors, Leads, etc..
• Tracking results
  

Cons:

• No guarantee on performance.
• Can get expensive
• Initial steep learning curve

By Nicholas Magliarditi