With all the activity on the internet, competition is fierce and it’s only going to get more congested as more and more companies realize the importance of taking their marketing dollars and putting them into online strategies.
“ 30 billion pieces of content are shared on Facebook each month. 340 million tweets are posted on Twitter daily. 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. With data like this, it’s no surprise that the average post by a brand on Facebook only reaches 10-16% of fans.” ~ Likeable Media
Use “Social Media” to amplify your business. Create a solid foundation with many platforms and ecommerce. Use social media to get your message out, build your audience and stay connected.
Begin by creating a strategies that uses multiple channels.
Use several techniques to stand out in the crowd.
1. Drive traffic with a Facebook Fan Page. With all of the new edge rank controversy and changes taking place on Facebook getting your page seen takes more work than ever. Companies who were seeing increased exposure a few months back are now seeing less exposure with the same amount of work.
EdgeRank is the name of the algorithm which Facebook uses to determine what appears in their users’ news feeds. It determines not only which fans are most important to brands but also which kinds of content should appear higher than others.
- Have a full detailed about section with a link to your website.
- Sharing matters – Timing matters. Share your own content at least once in the morning and once at night. The ideal amount of activity is once an hour from 7 A.M. to 7 P.M. and scheduled posts periodically in the off hours. (Depends on day, time zone and country your clients are in)
- No time to stay current on Facebook? Hire a social media manager to schedule updates in between your posts so for more complete coverage.
- Share a photo then add a link. These kinds of updates tend to receive more engagement.
- Build community. Share content from your online friends. Keep in relative to what your audience wants to see.
- Respond to all comments on your page. Show you care and welcome participation on your page.
- Get your vanity url to easily direct traffic to your page.
- Use contests and FB ads and sponsored post ads to draw attention and convert to sales
- Be natural. Facebook readers love authentic people and businesses.
- Ad custom tabs to maximize your pages potential. Capture emails, share videos, sell right off your page without being overzealous by using a sales page.
- Mobile is huge. As far as I know there is only one company right now that can turn your Fan page into an actual mobile page. We offer this as part of our social media management.
- Sales through Facebook by brands are only going to increase so start positioning yourself by building your online audience now. This can take time. The sooner you start the better. Build your audience with organic real followers. Stay away from “paid for follower” schemes.
- Don’t forget to post during off hours. Thursday through Monday tend to be popular active days on Facebook for brands. If you have fans in different time zones and different countries you need to post when they are online. Take a well rounded approach and experiment what is best for your audience.
- Include a call to action on your updates. Use questions, tips, quotes and polls to increase engagement.
2. Build customer loyalty and the love for your brand
- True love can’t be bought.
- Create a brand people love. Make them feel good.
- Loyalty lasts.
- Don’t just look at raw traffic look at engagement levels.
3. Be transparent
- Share your successes and failures.
- People love it when they have a glimpse into the real you.
- Be transparent on your social sites, blog and in your newsletter
4. Be consistent
- Send out a consistent newsletter and include other peoples stuff. Several marketers are reporting having wonderful results by sharing other people’s content monthly. Feature your favorite top ten articles from around the web, favorite funny videos, favorite recipes, etc. Those people will thank you for mentioning them and will reciprocate.
- Include a call to action in your blog posts and newsletters. Ask a question to increase comments, lead to a product you’re selling or to your Fan page or other social site.
5. Use multi channels to increase your audience and build your online presence.
- Even with a billion users not everyone plays around on Facebook every day.
- Consider building business pages on other social sites such as Google+, PInterest, Twitter.
- Take mobile seriously. Use Instagram to share a photo directly to your clients/followers in an instant. This can also post directly to Facebook at the same time.
- Have a mobile app with push notifications built for your company.
- Consider advertising on Twitter with Twitter Ads
- Advertise using mobile ads.
- Approach bloggers to blog about one of your products offer them a free sampling in exchange for a review.
6. Connect offline as well. Visit your local chamber of commerce. Join local networking groups in your area.
- Take advantage of local sales flyers, newspaper ads, craigslist, coupon promotions and radio ads.
- Gain exposure through sponsoring a local or online event.
- Donate to charity and share your proceeds on your business page. People love it when part of the expenses they paid for an item or service is donated to a special charity. Let your customers be a part of the charity selection process so they feel more invested in your goal of giving.
- Stay steadfast in your determination to be the best you can be.
- Always be on the look-out for new ways to expand your reach and connect with your audience.
Written By: Carol Lawrence
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