It’s all well and good to decide you are going to set up a Facebook page for your business, get a heap of ‘likers’ and tell them about ongoing offers and deals that will keep them coming back for more and make you a sales superstar. However what the majority of people don’t think about when they decide to setup a page is the actual people who will ‘like’ the page, how they will come to ‘like’ your page and why they will stick around as a liker to your page and listen to what you have to say.
I’m sure we’ve all heard it before, just because something is made doesn’t mean people are actually interested or going to use it. In this case, just because you have set up a page for your business it doesn’t mean Facebook users are going to go searching for you so they can like your page, and it also doesn’t mean that just because they do ‘like’ your page (if they do) that they intend to make a purchase from you, it’s just not the way that the world works.
Now without getting you too down in the dumps thinking that your hot new idea isn’t all that great I’m going to impart a little tip: no success comes without a strategy (especially in marketing and especially in social media) and Facebook is no different. Once you have your key strategy in place liking your way to the top becomes fun and creative rather than frustrating.
From day one of your new Facebook venture you need to have a few clear goals and a set approach in mind, from there it is really a step by step process of finding contacts, converting them into likers and building an ongoing relationship with them via posts, images, questions, discussions and even competitions.
To determine your goals and approach you need to answer the following questions:
- What is your Unique Selling Proposition? Do you market your business as having a personal touch that feels like a home away from home or are you positioned as a one-stop-shop for fun? The difference between the two will help you decide the tone of the content that you post and the ratio of how many photos, updates and tid-bits to sales messages you post. It will also help you decide the type of grammar and punctuation you use in your posts (i.e. using lingo and text talk for younger generations vs proper punctuation and spelling for other target markets).
- What is your user looking for? Are your new found ‘likers’ coming to your page to find out about specials and deals you have promised them or are they coming to keep updated with what is happening with your business/ region/ field? (i.e. what’s new in hairdressing trends) Determining this will provide you with a guide of what you should post. Ideally, the best outcome would be to provide a combination of both and then monitor your page insights to see which receives the better interaction and adjust accordingly. It is one thing to gain a collection of ‘likers’ but unless you provide them with the content that they are looking for you will not be able to keep them or ensure they interact with you (their interaction with you is key to your page becoming a viral success).
- What is your ideal outcome? It is most likely that your ideal outcome will be an increase in sales or an increase in awareness of your business, but unless you apply the S.M.A.R.T (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound) guidelines to this outcome you won’t be able to determine if your actions are successful or not. The main focus for this item is to focus on the Achievable and Realistic aspects of the SMART model. Compare your ideal outcome to the answers you have provided for the two above questions, if you have noted that your users are looking for updates from your field with relatively no interest in your product and your goal is to have 15 online bookings a week you need to re-assess the applicability of your goal.
Once you have your goals and approach in mind you need to get started on finding your contacts and converting them into ‘likers’. For this we have created a Facebook Blueprint that provides you a 12 step guide, simply fill out your email address and download the blueprint for your step by step guide to this important process.
From here it is a case of putting your planning to practice. Add new content to your page on a regular basis (2-3 posts scattered throughout the week is a good standard) following the answers to your questions above, work through the 12 Steps in the Blueprint and refine your posts as you go.
When you monitor your page insights and align them with your goals and approach it is important that you understand the overall response to Facebook pages. Take a look at the below graph from a survey Exact Target conducted to 1500 Facebook users, it shows why people ‘like’ a page on Facebook. Think about how your business can offer incentives in the top categories to grow your liker list.
What has motivated you to “like” a company, brand, or association on Facebook?
Getting people to ‘like’ you can be the harder part of the process, so get started with some of these suggestions:
- Ask your friends to lend a hand – one of the key reasons people like companies on Facebook is to show support for the business, with this in mind get a hold of your employees, friends, loyal customers and followers, newsletter list, affiliates and supportive contacts and ask them all to become a liker (what used to be called a fan). This will help boost you to the magic 25 and will get your viral impacts under way.
- Scream from the top of your lungs – ok don’t actually scream, but make sure absolutely everybody knows about it. Add a like button and feed to your website, write a blog post about it, include the link to it on your business card, add a linked URL in your email signature, place pictures up in your reception area announcing you are now on Facebook and if you have the size you could even place an ad in the local paper.
- Give a little to get a little – Research has shown that the number one reason people like companies on Facebook is because they want to get something. Make use of this fact! Offer a small discount or a freebie, the best type of freebie is an informative one that doesn’t cost you anything. There is a heap of PLR material out there that you could harness to entice likers.
The amazing thing is that Facebook does the rest of the legwork for you. Every time someone joins your page, Facebook automatically tells that persons friends and when they join, Facebook tells their friends too hence the viral nature of Facebook. Done correctly, you will be raking in fans in no time and through your content will be able to direct them to your website sales page to buy your products and services.
And as they say… “It’s not what you know, it’s who you like” (ok… yes we just made that up, but it might catch on!)
