8 tips for success with Facebook marketing

Gone are the days when marketing mixes were able to bear fruit without the aid of social media. And no other network is able to fuse aspects like brand building, customer loyalty, and rep­u­ta­tion man­age­ment so ef­fec­tive­ly like Facebook. One of the factors that explains Facebook’s success in this sector is its extensive coverage of many different de­mo­graph­ics, which in turn offers the social network many different options for ad­ver­tis­ing. But not just any blind approach will do: in order to truly profit from Facebook as a marketing tool, campaigns need to be thought­ful­ly planned and carried out. We’ve put together eight of the best Facebook marketing tips that will help you optimize your ad­ver­tis­ing presence:

1. The nuts and bolts of Facebook marketing

The true key to success for marketing on Facebook is a pro­fes­sion­al Facebook fan page. Setting up a page is a process that is best not done too hastily. First and foremost, make sure that all of your company’s or business’ ap­pro­pri­ate in­for­ma­tion has been made available. In addition to the location and opening times, aspects like the product range or your company story may be of par­tic­u­lar interest to some visitors. A filled out profile complete with relevant back­ground in­for­ma­tion and high quality photos makes your site appear more reputable and leaves viewers with a good first im­pres­sion. Profile and title images are of es­pe­cial­ly great im­por­tance and should be fitted with proper res­o­lu­tion and size.

3. Mind the mobile             

According to up-to-date figures, Facebook currently has roughly 1.6 billion active users. Over half of these access Facebook ex­clu­sive­ly via their mobile devices. Aside from demon­strat­ing the social network’s in­cred­i­ble reach, these numbers further highlight the im­por­tance of mobile op­ti­miza­tion for social media, and ensuring high quality layouts and photos is the first step. Facebook provides tips on dimension specs for profile and cover pictures. Once you have ensured that all pictures have been optimally laid out, the next step is to check that your texts and back­ground images are of ap­pro­pri­ate length and dimension. As is the case with most media forms today, mobile users have a very limited attention span, with the general user approach here being: scroll on if the content isn’t attention grabbing or im­me­di­ate­ly sat­is­fy­ing. Following this rule of thumb, all posts should aim to be as succinct as possible and in­cor­po­rate appealing imagery.

4. Boosting fan en­gage­ment

What de­ter­mines the success of a fan page? Is it the number of likes? Not exactly. This is due to the fact that getting ‘likes’ only boosts a fan page’s presence when those users are actually active. Un­ortho­dox Facebook marketing practices, like pur­chas­ing Facebook likes, therefore are of no help. Instead, your goal should be to court as many fans as possible and, at the same time, motivate them to interact with your content and each other. The best way of in­creas­ing your fans’ en­gage­ment rates is to always provide in­ter­est­ing and, above all, relevant content. Keeping an eye on current trends in your fan community and reacting quickly to internal changes is rewarded by an increase of fans and a broader overall ad­ver­tis­ing reach.

5. Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and in­ter­ac­tion

Having your own Facebook page proves an ideal outlet for sharing in­for­ma­tion and news about your company or business, but there is more to operating an effective fan page than merely shelling out post upon post about relevant updates. Re­spond­ing to requests and creating dialog not only adds value for Facebook users: it also strength­ens customer loyalty. In­creas­ing in­ter­ac­tion with fans can also be achieved through surveys or online sweep­stakes. And including fans into the decision making process not only builds trust, it helps provide valuable in­for­ma­tion on what customers expect from your business.

7. Videos are the new selfie

Im­ple­ment­ing the use of videos on Facebook is a task worth carrying out due in part to the in­tro­duc­tion of Facebook’s new video player (this also includes the auto play function). Videos also assist in creating an emotional con­nec­tion to their viewers and help carve out a more pro­fes­sion­al rep­re­sen­ta­tion of products and services on offer. This ad­di­tion­al content in turn generates more attention among target groups and provides fertile ground for viral video hits, recent examples being the Ice Bucket Challenge or the Harlem Shake.

8. Ad­ver­tis­ing with Facebook

If unable to reach the desired number of fans through organic measures, then paid ad­ver­tis­ing methods also remain viable options on Facebook. With the help of Facebook ads, busi­ness­es, and companies alike are able to home in on specific target groups and ease in in­di­vid­ual content into their field of view. Popular means for such ad­ver­tis­ing include page ‘like ads’ or ‘page post ads’. Ad­di­tion­al in­for­ma­tion on that matter can be found in our digital guide series here.

Facebook is a highly in­flu­en­tial platform and has the power to sub­stan­tial­ly increase your company or busi­ness­es’ reach. It’s important to remember, however, that social media marketing in general should be a component of a broader marketing mix. As is the case with other social networks, this reach is only ‘on lend’, as it is Facebook, and not you or your marketing team that really calls the shots in this game.