People are engaging more and more with each other and with brands using social media platforms that they enjoy and feel comfortable with. A huge amount of information is being transacted through social media and this leaves a fantastic opportunity to capture that big data and convert it into information that is useful to you and your business.
Different social media platforms offer different benefits and it is important to know that they don’t all operate in exactly the same way. Assuming a general blanket approach will be harmful to the reputation of your business in that particular space. Here are some guidelines for getting your business noticed using Facebook.
Where to start?
Set up a Facebook professional work page, not a group or a personal profile. It needs to be recognised as a business and there will be a fb toolkit and different functionalities that will come with that option that will serve you well. Find a picture to use as the image for your backdrop and profile that is professional and easy to recognise. Insert your address and contact details and website link so that people can follow up with you easily. Spend time writing a short business description that will easily summarise your business and what you do.
Create adverts
Advertising through social media is a popular route for internet advertising strategies. Set up an advert by stipulating the audience parameters. You don’t the adverts to be a spray and pray approach but rather carefully targeted. That way the success, hit rate and conversion rate will be much higher. Adverts cost money and what you’re essentially trying to achieve is value for money. The lower your cost per click or cost per acquisition the better. It is also okay that a cost per click is high, but then you want to ensure that it will convert into an acquisition. Don’t “boost” posts, the algorithms behind Facebook don’t like it and it will weaken your advert.
Calls to action
Your adverts must have a clear call to action. This could be to learn more about your product or service, to go to your website, sign up to a newsletter, click to like your page or your article or share your article. Ultimately what you’re working towards is getting the customer to make a purchase and so the closer you get them to make this step the better. It is up to you to decide how best to get there, but it is worth playing around with a few different approaches to see what works for you.
Tracking effectiveness
Use the built-in data reporting that Facebook offers as part of their business service offering to guide your adverts both current and future. You’ll be able to track quite closely to see what is working and what is not and that way you can replicate what is working. There are also some tools that can track photos to see where they go and how they get used or shared. The reporting is important for retargeting.