6 Ways to Market Your Business on FaceBook

FaceBook recently surpassed Google in terms of the average amount of time people spend on the site. Marketing your business on FaceBook is already a great way to get exposure and it will become more and more essential over time. Here are some tips on getting started.

1. Create a FaceBook Page. This is the first step and every business should have one. Fill out your Page profile completely and make sure to add a link back to your website (this will help with your SEO). Once you’ve created a page, you should make it more attractive by creating a custom tab that all new visitors will see. Creating a custom tab requires adding a FaceBook app that enables you to either insert custom text and graphics or link to another web page that you’ve created elsewhere. The latter option is the best way to go as it allows you to make any page on your existing website into a FaceBook tab on your FaceBook Page. Here’s a tutorial on how to accomplish this.
2. Invite people to like your page. Once you get your FaceBook page just the way you want it, invite all of your friends to like it. Click “Suggest to Friends” on the right side of your page and add a personal note to the “like” request.
3. Periodically post info about your business in your status update for your friends to see. Marketing your business directly to your friends via status updates and links is tricky business. If you do it too often, people may unfriend you or simply hide all your posts. The typical FaceBook user has a low tolerance for being blasted with sales and marketing messages on a regular basis. However, if you generally use your FaceBook profile for social activities and occasionally post information about your business, you can grow awareness of your business without turning people off. The tone of your post makes a big difference. If it’s impersonal and salesy, it will bug people. Remember who your audience is – they are your friends! Making an informal request such as “Hey, will everyone like my company’s page and help me get the word out?” will get much better response than “10% discount on XYZ product through the end of July.”
4. Request that good friends and business associates post something to THEIR profile about your business for their friends to see. Send these people an email or FaceBook direct message and ask if they will post a link to your business website or FaceBook fan page from their own profile. Give them suggestions on what they might say. For example, “Check out my friend John’s delivery service FastCouriers. I highly recommend them.”
5. Run an ad on FaceBook. FaceBook ads are cheaper than Google ads and you can better target the demographic you are after. Plus, you don’t pay unless someone clicks on your ad but you receive value just by having your ad display (increases brand awareness). Link your ad to your FaceBook page or directly to a landing page on your website where you can track conversion rates. Better yet, create several ads and see which one pulls the best.
6. Find groups or pages related to your business. Join them and post info to their wall. Be careful not to just spam groups that have no relation to you as that can hurt your reputation. However, if you are a valuable contributing member to the group, they will generally tolerate the occasional marketing message.

Follow the above steps and you will be getting more fans and more traffic to your website in no time!