How to Dominate Facebook

47% of Americans who are on social networks say that Facebook is the primary influencer of purchases. Businesses need to know how to play the social media game, and they need to know how to play it well. When more and more people are connecting to social networks, you have to adapt sufficiently to meet the new status quo. They have to play the game.

And businesses have done that in large numbers—either stubbornly or enthusiastically. In 2012, 77% of B2C companies say that they gained a new customer through Facebook.

Why Facebook Matters

Facebook is, by all accounts, the Big Daddy of social media.

But Facebook can be a little bit frustrating for many businesses. It’s at the very center of social engagement, so if you don’t succeed with Facebook, you are missing out on a potential stream of leads and sales for your business.

Facebook is great for:

• Gaining new leads and sales. Facebook is great for driving traffic. More about that later in this article.
• Developing relationships and rapport with your customers. Facebook is valuable for day-to-day engagement with your customers.
• Maintaining your customers through customer service. Facebook is a great avenue for customer service.

Creating the business page

Here’s the basics:

• While logged in to your personal Facebook account, click on the “Create a Page” link to create your business page.
• Choose the name of your page and choose your category. Make sure the category you choose is accurate and ensure that your name of the page is relevant to your business and your brand.
• Your profile picture should be 180 pixels by 180 pixels.
• List your hours of operation, physical address (if you have one), and phone number. Make sure to put your site url in your About section.
• Your cover photo should be around 851 pixels wide and 315 pixels tall.
• Make sure your put social plugins on your site, so that your visitors will know of your new Facebook business Page. Advertise the url of your business page.

Take advantage of Facebook ads

Facebooks advertising is one of the biggest marketing opportunities on the internet. The concept of spending money on PPC ads has spooked many businesses from actually advertising on Facebook, but this fear is misguided. Unlike other advertising avenues, the amount of people that you can reach is tremendous. Investing your budget in online magazines ads, banner ads, media buys, tv and radio ads, LinkedIn PPC, and SEO can offer wildly inconsistent results. Google AdWords can bring fantastic results but it is infamously expensive, to the point where many businesses would refrain from using it. Facebook, on the other hand, has been known to deliver very solid results if it’s used correctly while being very inexpensive.

Let’s look at the cost per 1000 impressions. This stat tells us how many people have actually seen the advertisement. The cost per 1000 impression for Facebook is $0.25. AdWords is $2.75. With Facebook, you can get by with $1 minimum spend per day.

Depending on your situation, Facebook ads can be just as robust as AdWords. You can target who sees your ads by many different factors and criteria:

• Age
• Gender
• Location (county, state, city, zip code)
• School/college (and you can even narrow it down to the college major)
• Job titles
• Specific interests
• Relationship status
• Broad categories
• Workplace
• Language

You can bid on ads by:

Cost Per Click (CPC)- This is the maximum amount of money that you will pay for an ad. This type of bidding is auction-based, so the CPC is determined by your competition.

Cost Per 1,000 Impressions (CPM)- This is the maximum amount you will pay for 1,000 impressions (views) of your ad. The CPM is determined by the competition.

Optimized Cost Per 1,000 Impressions (Ocpm)– The ad will be optimized to reach your target market. Facebook is a bona fide resource when it comes to information about its users. Your ads will reach users who have responded well to your type of ad before. This is the most expensive option of the bidding methods. It is also one of the most effective, as it is specifically delivers your ads to your target market.

 Becoming active and sparking engagement with your fans

You need to publish interesting content on your Facebook page. And you need to do it fairly often. Facebook is a great platform to get your message to people who want to hear what you have to say.

Great content doesn’t necessarily mean long, epic content—Facebook isn’t a blogging platform. Facebook users respond well to engaging photos that are often humorous and/or thought-provoking. They also respond well to status updates that give pertinent news about your business.

Don’t be afraid to show some personality on your business page. If you are as boring as a piece of cardboard, your fans will tune you out quickly. Facebook is not the place to be dull. Make some jokes. Talk about how your business has progressed. Interact with your fans as much as possible.

Conclusion

Facebook isn’t a challenge. It is an opportunity. Facebook is at a point where it is still relevantly easy to get some results. If you don’t capitalize on it, you’re sorely missing out.