How To Get Started With Facebook Marketing

Facebook presents huge opportunities to marketing your business and building a tribe around your brand. Most of us are familiar with using Facebook to connect with friends and family, but many business owners still find it daunting to do Facebook marketing.  I must admit, I find business marketing on Facebook daunting too.

With its Alexa ranking of 2, Facebook is the second most trafficked website in the world (after Google, although it has surpassed Google on occasion).  With more than 500 million members and growing by 70 000 new members per day, it is predicted to be 630 million by 2011 at the current rate. Demographics says that the fastest growing age group is 35-54.

For a business presence on Facebook, you may setup a FAN/Like Page to promote your business. To get started with Facebook marketing, there are a number of steps to follow.

First decide what is your primary objective with marketing on Facebook? You decide.

Examples are:

• Create place for fans to connect with us
• Build our email list
• Improve customer service
• Raise brand awareness

Facebook Privacy

Next you must remember to set Facebook privacy settings. Here I will refer you to one of the Facebook gurus, Mari Smith to explain how to do that:

For 10 ways to stay safe on Facebook – Mari Smith

Checklist

Before you setup your business page, begin with a checklist.

1. Who is your target market?
2. Select a clear objective for example: to raise brand awareness and have people know about your product, service, company and brand.
3. Think about your strategies to implement
4. Technologies to be used for example: Hootsuite.com is great technology to post content on to your page.
5. Track and measure results

Business Page Setup

Now you are ready to set up that Business Page.

1. Design your FAN page picture – optimal picture is going to be 180px by 540px
2. Add company details under Info Tab – put in as much information as possible and make it keyword rich
3. Import your blog with NetworkedBlogs application – it will pull in your blog postings
4. Add custom content under Welcome tab. The primary purpose here is to greet people and when they land on your Facebook landing tab, to let them know they’re in the right place.
5. Add an email opt-in box – let it show up on the left hand side of your Wall
6. Start discussion topics. For example on Discussion Board give Fans a place to promote themselves.
7. Promote your other networks (Twitter, LinkedIn, Blog)
8. Add 3rd party applications (advanced)
9. Promote your FAN Page

• Plugins: Install the Like button on your blog/website if you have products/services or next to your blog posts
• Ezine or email list: promote your Fan Page to your subscribers
• Business cards, brochures – invite users to Facebook Fan page as call to action

Step-by-Step

For people who like to follow a step-by-step approach to get started, the Social Media Starter Project Kit will help you start-up with Facebook marketing through creating your own Social Media strategy, following a simple project plan and a report with clear instructions to follow. It’s not as difficult as you think, click here to start today!