How to use Facebook for Marketing

Build an Attractive Page
There is nothing worse than a page that might as well have the word ‘GENERIC’ stamped across it in bold lettering.

Don’t be hasty in setting up your page if you’re still to come up with logo and branding, for example, for your business.  Much better to be a touch late to the party and start with all cylinders firing than have people form an opinion of a half-baked page, meaning they won’t return later even though you’ve sorted it out.

Ensure that business logos, colors, and anything else are all the same as you have on your regular business website.

Finding an Audience
Facebook themselves tell you that step one is to invite all of your friends to your page.  Good advice, but not ideal if none of your Facebook connections have any interest in what it is you do, or if you’ve just joined Facebook purely for launching a business page.

Here are some alternative options that will bring better results:
•    Ensure a link to your Facebook page, and/or a ‘like’ box, is added to your website homepage; make this a feature on every page if possible, particularly for liking content.
•    Use a social plugin from Facebook that will help you reach out to people with interests in what you do without you needing to be friends with them; this is a great alternative to paid advertising.
•    If you already have a healthy blog following, or an email-marketing list, for example, dedicate a full post/message to your new Facebook page, talk about your excitement around it, and encourage everyone to join.

Audience Engagement
Don’t connect your business Facebook page with other social networks and allow posts from these to appear in your Facebook feed.  Doing this with Twitter, for example, will leave your Facebook page filled with short bites of information that might not be relevant to your audience on that site.

Luckily, the trick to getting Facebook right is to treat it as you would a blog.  Update content on a regular basis so those who visit your page know when there’ll be updates and something to read, and always respond to queries and feedback, negative or positive.

Remember to vary your content between simple comments, pictures, and links to longer posts.

Never Rely Only on Facebook
All of the guidance here will help you to make a success of your Facebook page.  However, don’t rely only on Facebook, both from a website and a social media standpoint.  Many businesses actually use social media without having a website, which is never a good idea.  As well as Facebook, take the time to identify the other social platforms, including niche sites, where you might be able to build a following.