Facebook took the world by storm in just a few baby steps it took way back in 2004. Since then, the social networking site has seen tremendous growth in the expansion of its business, so much so that leading businesses from the corporate realm can’t keep away from marketing themselves via this popular social medium.
Needless to say, having a list of objectives helps paint a clear picture of how a marketing strategy will be executed. Some of these objectives may focus on:
a) Generating brand/product awareness
b) Promoting product development
c) Increasing traffic and sales
d) Building and nurturing customer loyalties
Once the objectives are ready, businesses can choose from a plethora of approaches to market their brand or product on Facebook. Ten strategies that are becoming increasingly popular with marketers are highlighted below:
1. Integration On Website
Simply adding a Facebook icon on a company website can help leverage existing traffic towards any page the business may have on the social site. Equally important is the placement of the icon on the website. Top-of-the-page placement gets a better visibility than that of a bottom-of-the-page placement.
2. Pages
Fan pages are a rage these days. These are used extensively for educating and entertaining fans all the while attracting more traffic. Any comments that a published content garners will surface in people’s feeds thereby attracting more visitors to the page.
3. Advertisements
Advertising on Facebook can give a business the much needed boost it requires to stay on top of things. Facebook ads help a great deal in attracting new fans and at the same time, promoting brand awareness.
4. Applications
Facebook apps are mostly used for creating “landing page” or “lead capture page” which basically coverts site guests into sales or leads. With an in-depth analysis of the same by the marketers, the success of an advertisement is determined.
5. Community
In order to build lasting trust and loyalty with customers, businesses are widely making use of Facebook communities.
6. Contests
To break away from the lull of inactivity, many companies announce exciting contests that they run exclusively for their Facebook fans. It is important to think out-of-the box in order to achieve soaring engagement scores.
7. Engagement On Other Pages
By regularly commenting on other popular Facebook pages, marketers can attract a large pool of visitors to their own page and gather “likes” which they can read as “lead conversions”
8. Social Plug-ins
Facebook plug-ins such as “like”, “share”, “comment”, “follow”, etc. increase the awareness of a brand and it depends from business to business which plug-in works for them the best.
9. Images and Videos
Fans on Facebook engage more promptly with a business when they use images and videos to communicate with their customers.
10. Reveal Pages
Reveal pages, otherwise known as custom tags, are visible to the fans of a brand. Many businesses that use these pages either put a lot of discount-coupons for their fans or upload e-books as free downloads.
The use of any or all of the above mentioned strategies can give businesses a lot of visibility on social platforms like Facebook provided that their execution is properly followed by constant reviews and feedbacks.