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May 24
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We have seen social media grow from a small trickle on the Web to a giant that overpowers most other marketing strategies. Smart marketers are those that capitalized on social media when it was growing.
Social media marketing is no longer what it was earlier, with every Tom, Dick and Harry trying to “hard sell” their wares on the social media sites, so much so that people on those sites have become vary of anything that even slightly hints at a promotion.
But it is never too late for those of you who are willing to take the long road to success and spend time in attracting the valuable demographics that haunt sites like Facebook, which has taken over the social networking space.
Facebook user-base of more than 400 million users across the world, consists of not only teenagers and college students, but also adults and professionals belonging to all age groups – who are all willing to get to know you and take a look at what you have to offer – as long as you don’t stuff things down their throat.
Facebook Marketing Tools
Facebook Profile – It may seem surprising calling a Profile Page on Facebook a marketing tool, but by now it’s a known fact that the profile, which is basically a landing page, plays a very important role and half the battle is won if you can get it right. Created tactfully, a strong Facebook profile offers abundant opportunity to make connections with people and convert them into business partners or customers in the future. This is the place where you can let others know of your company, product or brand and it helps build credibility as well. You should know, that one of the most common pastimes of people on Facebook is to keep checking profile pages, and if you’re profile is interesting enough, you will have tons of traffic in no time.
Facebook Groups – Facebook has millions of user groups and is viral marketing at its best! You can create Facebook groups on any topic under the sun. They are used for serious discussions or as fun places to spend time. As the creator of a group, you have complete control over the features that you enable for your group. You can make your group public and let any Facebook user access it or keep it private meant only for invited members. People who join a group can post messages on the “wall” or in the “forum” and you can send messages to all your group members. The advantages of a Facebook group is that they can be used for marketing and Facebook users love groups.
Facebook Pages – This will give you the opportunity to create a professional profile representing your business, as pages are more customizable than groups. Facebook applications can also be added. Facebook users can become your fans and the best part is that once someone becomes a fan, they can either share your page with their own fans or their friends may notice you through their profile page or News Feed. This creates a snowball effect and your fans multiply (no limitation) over a period of time, giving your business excellent exposure. The only drawback is that you cannot “invite” others fans to be yours.
Facebook Photo and Video Sharing – As is obvious, through this feature, you will be able to share photos and videos with others on Facebook.
Facebook Messages – Messages can be a great targeted marketing strategy. They are like email and you can send messages to any Facebook user. However, Facebook is very strict about spam prevention and will not accept if you send too many messages to people who are not on your friends’ list. Use this at your own discretion.
Facebook Events – This is a free application that can be used to promote everything from product launches to all other marketing events you can think of. When you create an event, a fully-featured page will be available to you, and you can do anything you want just like a group - write on the wall, discuss, post links, videos etc. You can send an invitation to your friends. This is one way of getting attention to your product launches and is great to let hundreds of people know of your event in the easiest manner possible.
Facebook Mini Feed and News Feed – When Facebook users join your group or become fans of your page, event or share photos etc., Facebook adds a feed item to their Mini Feed automatically. This feed is open for all to view on their profile pages. Facebook’s News Feed, then combines each users’ Mini Feeds into a single “recent news” item. You can imagine the huge potential this offers for your online marketing.
All these marketing strategies are free and are excellent to increase traffic to your business blog or website. While there are a lot of possibilities with Facebook, the reason why the majority of marketers fail, is due to the lack of understanding of the numerous marketing channels Facebook offers.
