By Jamie Allebach
If you’re not personally on Facebook or using it to market your brand—you’re either living in a cave or suffering from some type of technophobia. Facebook now has 350 million users and is a hotbed for marketing (Quick fact: if Facebook were a country, it’s population would rank it as the 4th largest in the world).
For the rest of you, by now you’ve most likely mastered the basics of Facebook and set up Facebook fan pages for your brand or business. It’s now time to take your Facebook marketing to the next level. Here are some practical tips:
- Grow your fan base by promoting your brand to your fans and friends, and ask them to pass along information.
- Utilize your fans and friends to gather valuable consumer feedback. You can create surveys, quizzes, or questionnaires about your brand or even new product development ideation. Now you’ve gathered valuable consumer data, intelligence, and opinions…for FREE.
- Send our special promotions or incentives to your friends and fans, and watch the viral effect of Facebook. There are many ways to get creative with this–think outside the box of traditional promotions.
- Utilize behavior-targeted ads to get in front of people who are likely to relate with your brand. (http://alleblog.com/?m=200905)
- Join and contribute to the conversations about your brand.
- Develop a Facebook App or game for your brand.
- Use postings to drive friends and fans to your website or other social mediums.
Why are these tactics so effective on Facebook? One of the primary reasons is what I call the “Sticky Factor” of Facebook. One of the major challenges with blogs, websites, microsites, and other online mediums is driving traffic. Brands spend millions to drive unique visitors and then strive to return incentives. With Facebook, they’re already there, every day, sometimes for hours at a time.
These are just some basic, effective ways to invest your marketing dollars on Facebook. Dive in and give it a try.