| Using Facebook as the means for free advertising is probably one of the wisest movies any business person can make in this competitive marketing age. As we have been discussing Facebook offers plenty of opportunities for the business owners to launch develop and grow through its influential social network.
Through Facebook, you can actually choose who to target just as easily as a paid system such as Google Ads does. Through Facebook, you can choose the location, interests, relationship status, gender, age and location of your target market. What a convenient way to start your marketing strategy online!
The best part is that it can actually be free if you want it to be. Facebook gives you the option of running free or paid promotions. The paid aspect is through Facebook?s formal ads.
Now, how do you run free promotions?
Why, through your personal network, of course, or through your fan page. If you?re launching a product, service or brand, it is recommended to have a formal fan page. Nevertheless, personal connections such as friends, friends of friends, acquaintances and relatives will help greatly in building your business social network.
Wall updates, photos, notes, group discussions and basically any other posts will help the product or service stay top-of-mind. As I mentioned in your last lesson, prospective customers want companies to have enthusiastic and informative updates.
Tip: Don't make the mistake of barraging your customers or potential customers with too many Facebook updates at one time, or worse, continuously flood their Facebook walls with the same message placed several times. Spamming is annoying no matter who does it, so take care that you avoid doing that to your friends and fans.
The best way to avoid spamming others, however intentional or unintentional, is to choose your target market well. Nobody wants to receive a wall post that is a generic message of a product they?re not even interested in.
You can control who sees your message by researching the person?s likes or dislikes which may be apparent in their profile page or you may also ask from a personal contact. You can even check out organizations or groups that they are affiliated with online which are related to your business or industry.
Another way to place a wall post in that isn't tantamount to spamming is to place it like a personal message. The less generic the message is, the better. You may start with something like, ?Hi. I just saw from your profile that you like Ice Cream and I though you may be interested in a free sample of our Homemade Ice Cream.?
If this strategy is a bit too forward for you, then work on making Facebook applications that can insert advertisements into them or better yet, try Social Ads. Demographically speaking, these two are more effective and less time consuming than having to analyze your customers one by one. |