FACEBOOK:How to Use the Internet’s Hottest Social

Platform to Attract, Engage, and Inspire New Clients and Customers to Rave About

Your Business!

Sponsors:

Tim Evans

Main Objective• Learn how to use Facebook effectively• How to avoid being distracted on Facebook• New ways to interact with clients & customers• New ways to promote your company• How you can build your business using

Facebook

Understanding Facebook Stats

• What is Facebook?– A social network where people meet to discuss

their mutual interests– Similar to alumni gatherings or family reunions– An easy way to network with your target market– Ability to reach thousands of people in your target

market

Understanding Facebook Stats• Facebook is the most powerful social network

in the world– More than 1 billion active users– Users spend more than 700 billion minutes on

Facebook per month– 500 million users access Facebook via their mobile

phone– Mobile users are more active on Facebook than

non-mobile users

Understanding Facebook Stats

• Do Facebook users make purchases?– Yes!– How many big brands have Facebook pages?– Most active user demographic is 18-34– Largest growing user demographic is 50+– International markets grew to 95 million users in

2008-09– Largest countries on Facebook are: U.S.,

Indonesia, U.K. and Turkey

Pros & Cons of Facebook

• Pros– Affordability– Low learning curve– Your target market is here– Leading social media platform– Flexible format supports customer engagement

Pros & Cons of Facebook

• Cons– Distractions– Overwhelm– Easy to forget other marketing tactics– Time consuming– Ability for audience to see negative comments or

reviews

Plan Facebook Strategy• Identify your objectives– Increase sales?– Promote products or events?– Build brand awareness & loyalty?

• Identify your target audience– Start networking– Use this info to craft a Facebook ad campaign

Plan Facebook Strategy

• How will you reach your audience?– Daily posts– Facebook ad campaign– YouTube video contest on your business page– Build a list from your Facebook page

• How will you track & measure each strategy?• If your strategy worked, then repeat it!• If it didn’t work, make a change & try again

Customer Engagement

• Customers can now ask questions, provide feedback & see other reviews

• Would you rather buy something from an ad or by having a real conversation with a representative of that company?

• Traditional advertising is losing power• People want real responses from authentic

people

Customer Engagement

• Consumers are more proactive in their product research

• Businesses should be involved in these discussions with consumers

• Provide regular updates to consumers• Provide a Facebook page to encourage

conversation• Engagement brings awareness & interest

Customer Engagement

• Daily posting is easy with an editorial calendar• Ask your audience questions relevant to your

business or product• Encourage them to post their answers on your

page• Customer engagement is a free marketing

tool!

Setting Up Profiles

• This is where people learn more about you• Must have a profile FIRST before you can have

a business page• Your personal network can help build a

following for your business page

Profile Must-Haves

• “About” Page– Business name & URL– Short description about yourself

• Profile picture– Headshots build credibility & trust

• Cover Photo– Should reflect your interests, family or hobbies

More Profile Details

• Privacy – You control who can see your posts

• Send invitations to new friends– Current friends or family– Business acquaintances– New people with common interests

Business Pages

• Assign a name– Usually your business name– You can get the vanity URL without the extra

numbers, like www.facebook.com/txcoffeenews

– Edit Page/ Update Info• Fans– People who visit your page & click the “Like”

button

Business Pages

• Cover– Large image placed at top of business page– Dimensions = 851 pixels wide x 315 pixels tall– All covers are public– Think about what business image you want to

project

Business Cover Examples

Business Pages

• Profile picture / Avatar– At least 200 x 200 pixels– Clear headshot is best

• Send invitations– Invite people to like your business page– Friends, family, real life customers– Others will see your popularity increasing– Post quality content & engage your followers

SEO & Facebook

• SEO = Search Engine Optimization– Process of using keywords so your page appears

on the first page of search engines• Business pages are public & indexed in the

search engines• Aim for first page of search results– After page 2, few website links are clicked

Improve Your SEO

• Do NOT choose an obscure URL• Get people to link to your Facebook page– Search engines see these links & push your page

further to the top of the listings• Link to your Facebook page directly from your

website

Getting More Likes!

• Number of likes provides social proof of expertise• Offer a promotion or special offer• Publish interesting & valuable content regularly• Purchase ads that reach beyond your current

network• Visitors to your location can “like” your page

when they arrive

Getting More Likes!• Learn about what type of content readers

want– Provide a tip a day– Post tip at same time each day

• Choose different themes or topics for each day– Invite readers to join the conversation

• Ask loyal fans to spread the word!

Contests & Sweepstakes

• Contest involves voting on a winner based on certain guidelines

• Sweepstakes requires very little to enter, no judging, winner chosen at random

• What is your objective?– To increase Likes, hold a sweepstakes– To increase engagement, ask readers to vote on

best entry, photo, etc

Contests & Sweepstakes

• Sweepstakes generally have a larger number of entries than contests– Fewer people will want to do the work for a

contest• ALWAYS follow the Facebook Terms &

Conditions regarding sweepstakes & contests• Try a 3rd-party app for contests & sweeps– Wildfire.com or Votigo.com have apps

More On Likes• Make a charitable contribution for each

Facebook like• Pay it forward• Add to email signature, business cards and

brochures • Integrate with all advertising• Share across social media• Post to others Pages/Groups

Facebook Apps

• Standard programs built into the Facebook platform– Photos Events– Video Notes

• Did you know there are 70,000 apps available to use with Facebook?– Find business-focused apps at AppBistro.com

Facebook Apps

• Apps create seamless ways to connect with your business page fans– Email lists– Selling products– Promoting online & offline events

• Live example…– Login to Facebook & go to

facebook.com/txcoffeenews & Click on Contestfacebook.com/barefootexecutive & Click on Book

These are 3 examples of customized business apps

Building Interaction

• To increase sales, build a loyal following– They will regard you as industry expert

• Plan strategic but authentic interaction– Use editorial calendar to plan topics of

conversation– Provide high-value products, services &

information regularly

Building Interaction

• Question & Answer Sessions– Make yourself available weekly to answer questions– Block out 60 minutes– Experiment with times of day

• Post Daily Tips– Post at same time each day– Make posts short but useful– Tips may encourage questions or sharing

Building Interaction• Share photos of you or your brand in the

community– Photos of you inaction, at events, or product images

• Share experiences – good & bad– Brings you closer to your audience– Reinforces your commitment to being authentic and

real– Write blog posts & share link of your page

Shareable Content

• Share a post on someone else’s page– Now your post is visible to THEIR network

• Sharing options– On your own timeline – A friend’s timeline – In a group– On a different page

Video

• Video marketing is exceptionally popular– YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine– YouTube receives 4 billion hits per day

• 61% of business to business marketers use YouTube to deliver content

• Over 100 million internet users watch videos each day

Video

• Are your competitors using video?– If so, then you risk losing your audience unless you

produce videos• Facebook is the leading referral source for

video content• Videos should engage, educate & entertain

Should You UploadDirectly to Facebook?

• Yes!– People who view & Like your video automatically

become fans of your page– Easier to share

• To share a YouTube video, you can only share the link

– Audience can tag Facebook videos with own keywords

– Facebook supports wider variety of video formats & lengths

Types of Video Content

• Talking head – you sit & talk about a particular business experience

• Webinar replays – showcase some or all of a webinar you hosted– Particularly effective if you’re demonstrating

something or showing your work• Screen captures – weekly newsletter showing

screen captures that illustrate a point

Photos

• Makes your content more engaging• Adds dimension & interest to posts• Use as an add for your business– Upload professional photo– Include hyperlinked URL in the description– Write a brief text description using keywords

Selling on Facebook• Do you have an app to capture emails?• Do you have an app that integrates a sales

page into your business page?• Mix up your content with relevant posts &

sales promos• Respond to every question!• Promote your page– Start with friends & then expand your reach

Analytics

• Are you reaching your goals?• Is each strategy paying off?• Facebook Insight– Total Likes– Number of unique people (friends of fans) who liked

your page– Number of unique people who created a story about

your page (people talking about this)– Gender, age, visitor’s city & country of origin

Analytics

• Record your baseline numbers BEFORE starting any promotional campaigns

• Did your contest triple the number of women to your page?– What can you learn from this?– How can you capitalize on this?– How did the increase affect your sales?

Return on Investment

• What Facebook marketing strategies & investments lead to increases in sales and by what percentage?– How much traffic was generated to the page?– Has that increased brand awareness?– Has Facebook activity increased website traffic?– How many sales can be linked to a sales page on

the Facebook business page?

Return on Investment

– How much influence did you gain?• Influence means how many times is your company

mentioned on Facebook• If your video goes viral, this can increase your influence• And you can make a connection between your

marketing efforts, the video & increased earnings

Conclusion

• Any business – no matter what the size – can find a market on Facebook

• It’s FREE to get started marketing on Facebook• People want to be engaged & have

conversations• People value the opinions of others• Have authentic & real conversations

Questions????

Tim@localmarketingwebinars.org