5 Ways Your Business May Not (But Should) Be Taking Advantage of Facebook Marketing
5 Ways Your Business
May Not (But Should) Be Taking Advantage of Facebook Marketing
Facebook has
seen its fair share of ups and downs in the past year. From overestimating
video view time to advertisers, to stirring up deep controversy over privacy
breaches, the social media giant has fallen under increased criticism and
scrutiny.
Related: 8 Reasons Facebook Will Beat All Other Digital Marketing Channels This Year
Despite these problems, Facebook remains a powerful tool for
businesses trying to reach new customers. Even with its troubles, Facebook's
more than two billion active monthly users make it a power to be reckoned with.
And that includes you, because a large proportion of your target audience in
all likelihood has a presence on this social media platform.
That's why you should, too -- and that means doing more than
just maintaining a business page on Facebook that you occasionally update.
Here’s a closer look at some of the ways your company should be using Facebook
to up its marketing game:
1. Look for ways to add to the conversation.
Many page owners are content with simply posting on their
Facebook feed and occasionally responding if they receive a direct message from
one of their customers. But if you want to increase engagement with your posts
and generate a more active following, you’ll need to be more proactive in reaching
out to your target audience.
While asking users to share their feedback or commentary on
a post is a great way to increase engagement, you can take things a step
further by initiating conversations in the comments section of your posts.
By responding to user comments with helpful, relevant and
friendly posts, you can turn your Facebook page into a mini customer service
center -- which will ultimately encourage even greater engagement.
The sooner you respond to these comments and private
messages, the greater engagement you’ll receive. It never hurts to assign
someone the responsibility of monitoring your social media accounts throughout
the day to take advantage of these conversation-starting opportunities.
2. Move beyond "Pages"; start a Facebook group.
Facebook Pages has long been the go-to hub for businesses,
but with adjustments to Facebook’s algorithms causing organic reach to decrease
even more, many savvy business owners are instead turning to Facebook groups.
To learn more about this trend, I reached out to David
Schloss, founder and CEO of Convert ROI. In an email, Schloss explained to me
that, “Facebook groups are the perfect place to engage with your most loyal
customers. It’s easier to start conversations and build a true sense of community
in a group, because you can share more personalized content.
Related: 10 Hidden Facebook Marketing Hacks You Can Try
Today
“The biggest advantage, though," Scholoss continued,
"is that it’s easier for posts to get to your target audience, thanks to
group notification settings. You won’t have to worry about your posts getting
filtered out by the algorithm, ensuring greater engagement.”
Rather than investing even more of your budget to boost your
posts, creating an active Facebook group will ensure that your most engaged
audience members are always aware of your newest content.
3. Unleash the power of the "Pixel."
One of the biggest changes to Facebook’s marketing offerings
is the Facebook Pixel, a coding option that allows business owners to more
fully integrate their Facebook ad campaigns with their websites.
The Facebook Pixel is added to your website’s code so it can
report on actions that customers take after viewing your ads on Facebook. The
Pixel essentially acts as a form of conversion optimization by tracking when
customers take desired actions and then using this data to help build more
relevant custom audiences. This information can also be used to retarget
customers who have visited your website.
Ultimately, the Facebook Pixel is an essential part of your
modern marketing toolkit, helping with everything from more precise targeting
to tracking campaign results.
4. Turn existing posts into ads.
There’s a difference between simply boosting a normal
Facebook post and publishing an ad. But, quite often the most effective ads are
those that don’t appear overly promotional. Wouldn’t it be nice to create
organic-looking Facebook ads without needing to develop a completely new
campaign?
As it turns out, Facebook’s Ad Manager allows you to do just
that by letting you select the option “Use Existing Post” to turn a standard
post into an ad -- a great way to save time on your campaign.
As Julia Bramble wrote on Social Media Exminer: “This tactic
is perfect if, for example, one of your posts has attracted much more
engagement than you expected and you want to share it out to a wider audience.
Or maybe you want to make sure that the ad you’re planning also gets posted on
your page.”
5. Save time with saved audiences.
Most business owners understand the importance of using
Facebook’s detailed targeting options to reach individuals who are most likely
to convert. But building out a custom audience for each ad campaign can prove
extremely time consuming. Thankfully, saved audiences can streamline your
targeting so you can spend more time focused on crafting high-quality content.
With a saved audience, you can select your targeting
preferences with a single click when creating future campaigns. Keep in mind,
however, that you should regularly re-evaluate your targeting options to ensure
you are reaching the right groups. You can also use multiple saved audiences to
conduct A/B testing to see which groups respond best to different keyword sets.
Related: The Complete Guide to Getting Started With Facebook
Ads
Quality Facebook Ads and a well-rounded business page can
lead to significant growth -- when you
take advantage of all the marketing resources Facebook has to offer. As you use
these strategies to better reach your target audience, you’ll see the growth
and conversions you need.
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