Best Social Media Business Strategy with Facebook
Just a few posts ago, I wrote about the need to make sure your small business website has a sound marketing strategy behind it. Now it’s time to ask the same question about your Facebook page – what is your Facebook page there for? The wrong answer is to just have it there ‘cause its cool. The right reason is because it will create an online presence for your business that will allow you to grow a dedicated social media community that you can offer value and customized marketing campaigns to. Here are some guidelines to getting a social media campaign up and running:
Competitors: Take a look at what they are doing. If they have lots of fans and are “liked”, use them as a benchmark. If they have only a so-so Facebook presence, then just glean the best practices you can find.
Translate: You might be a furniture company, but your best Facebook campaign ideas might come from Dell’s fan page.
Have an Open Mind: Try to open your mind to all of the possibilities of Facebook. There is no hard and fast rule for success on Facebook (except you have to put your audience first), so you need to be creative. Every day is a new day to start an exciting conversation and come up with a new idea your fans will love.
Action: Make sure you know what you want your fans to do. Do you want them to recommend your product/services to friends? If so, how can you encourage them to do that? Does your product work great, but you need people to try it once before they buy it? Then offer free samples. Make Facebook do what you want it to do – there’s probably a way.
Here’s a Facebook campaign example. Dunkin Donuts had a pretty good idea with their “Keep it Coolata” sweepstakes. The idea was for fans to upload pics of themselves with a Coolata Beverage onto the fan page wall. Then they got a chance to win prizes if their image was randomly selected. This is a good example, because a lot of you small business owners out there can probably find a way to refashion this strategy to suite something that you offer – you might even have some fun doing it!
Yes, you need to set up a schedule and be committed to your Facebook page and be an active participant. You also need to keep an eye on the metrics. Don’t worry, from a technical standpoint, everything with Facebook is relatively straightforward. This leaves you more time to spend brainstorming how to connect with your new social media community.
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