Facebook needs no introduction; with over one billion registered members world-wide, this is one market a small growing business can’t ignore. Currently, there are over 645 million views and thirteen million comments being made on local business Facebook pages.
Obviously you can’t target the entire one billion people, but you can use this platform to access the people who matter to your business. Promoting your business of Facebook is no longer a case of should I? Shouldn’t I? It’s an opportunity and a necessary obligation if you really want to make a personal connection with your customers. So how do you grow your community and target the people who count? Here are a few ideas.
Content IS King
2013 was the year for content marketing. With all the Google algorithm updates, it’s now more important than ever to post original content that is high quality, interesting and generates discussion. Now Facebook is following suit and their latest update focuses on articles.
For users, that means that if your friends Like and click articles on their mobile devices, you will notice more links to these article in your own newsfeed. However, you can’t just post any old willy nilly piece of content that isn’t relevant to your market because at the end of the day, you have to build trust. Good content that is informative, supports your brand and that is engaging will win them over any day.
Show Us Your Craziest Face
A good old fashioned contest is an effective way to attract fans to your Facebook business page. There are a few different approaches you can take. To get more ‘likes’ to your page, you can create a Like to Win competition where to enter a person has to actively go to your page and click the like button.
To create an engaging competition that builds on the trust on your existing fans, you might want to create a competition where they have to put in the effort if they want to win the prize. For example, it may be to take a photo of your craziest face and tag the business in the photo to win. Comps like this create a sense of community and show your business in a more friendly and approachable light.
Target Your Market with Social Shares
Getting a person with many followers to share information about your business is a great way to target specific markets. When some has reached a social media status (i.e 10,000 followers on Twitter) they may offers services to send out an update on their page that promotes your business.
This works really well if the person’s followers are people that will genuinely be interested in what you are selling. For example, if Jaguar Facebook wanted more fans, they could contact a popular car blogger who has 50,000 followers on Twitter to promote Jaguars special deal and provide a link that redirects them to the Facebook page.
Of course, there are many more ways that you can boost your audience, but the most important thing to remember is to engage with them. If they ask you a question or leave a complaint on your page, don’t ignore it, interact with them on a personal level.
Are you a business owner? Have any more tips you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments below.