By the time Mark Zuckerberg developed Facebook, it was purely intended as an online rating site to “judge” fellow Harvard students by posting two pictures and rate them based on their attractiveness. Next thing we knew, Facebook became what is known to be today: A social media phenomenon that became a part of everyone’s daily life.
Moreover, Facebook today not only caters to individuals who want to reconnect and rekindle old friendships with their high school classmates. It is also a hub for budding business people who want to promote their business. Being the rookie business person that you are, how are you supposed to use this social networking site to your advantage?
To help you come up with some strategies and be a social media marketing virtuoso that you ought to be, here are some of Facebook’s useful features to boost your market reach:
CREATE A PAGE
Nowadays, having a small business without a Facebook page is like telling your whole family you’re getting married to a certain girlfriend/boyfriend of 3 years, whom they haven’t even met. With Facebook, a business page will serve as a way of introducing your business not only to your friends and family, but also to the public.
Advantages:
With all the basic and important information about your company, brand, products/services you offer and business hours are all integrated literally on a same page, this gives your potential market a generalized idea of what your business is all about. Moreover, interactions such as answering queries or announcing promos and updates with your customers will more convenient.
GROUPS
Just like having a business page on Facebook, creating a “group” is very useful and advantageous to up-and-coming and seasoned small business alike. Here, potential customers as well as patrons are welcome to participate in discussions that relates to your business. However, the difference between having a group from a page is that not everyone can join a group, as owners have the discretion to limit the exclusivity of its members.
Advantages:
Discussions in the group page can be more open and casual. Business owners can interact with the members in a more direct manner. Owners can also use this to post questions/surveys to conduct further business studies and improvement.
SPONSORED ADS
Sponsored Ads is Facebook’s own version of Pay Per Clicks/Cost Per Impression ads. This feature can be seen either on the news feed or right column for desktop viewing, as well as on mobile feed and third party apps.
Advantages
: With its flexibility, using Facebook Ads allows business owners to get an upper-hand in terms of targeting potential market by setting custom parameters (setting a specific age group, location, gender, interests, etc.) without much of a worry about ruining your allotted funds for advertisements. In addition, business owners have the freedom to customize their advertisements, according to their preferences and check them on their Facebook Adverts Manager, making it easier for them to gather more likes as they promote their business effectively while monitoring their campaign.
STATUS, PHOTO, VIDEO AND EVENTS
Wall posts to be exact. This functionality can be instrumental in spreading your business on Facebook, as the number of likes and Shares from your page will be dependent based on how interesting your posts are. With that being said, regular posting of time-worthy status, photos and/or videos may be simple enough to maintain your visibility/activity on social media, but once you discover the right mixture of interesting wall posts, this could be the flint and steel you need for your business page to spread all over Facebook like wildfire.
Advantages:
Think of it as a free way to directly advertise your business to your fan base by any means necessary. You have the ability to post photos for promoting a specific product/services and even online contests; or make viral videos as your way of marketing your brand. Or perhaps, setup a small event for brand launchings.