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Business owners across the world have been using Facebook to market their business since the inception of a business page within the Facebook organization. And why wouldn’t they? Facebook is one of the very few platforms in the world that allows you to reach people in almost every continent of the world. You can promote your business through various means which can be placed in the two broad categories of “paid” and “free” marketing.

 But within these two categories lies an entire universe, or rather metaverse, of options. Choosing the right option for your specific business can be a daunting task due to the various options and their unique applications which aren’t a “one-size-fits-all solution”. Instead, you have to be careful when taking any action to promote or market your business on Facebook. This is because sometimes, your content can have unintended effects when done poorly.

1. Build a Facebook page for your business

Build-A-Facebook-Page

Before you go about deciding the kind of content you want on your business page, you need to establish an online presence and announce to the world that you’re officially open for business. And the best way to do that besides holding a large opening party is to set up your own Facebook page. The process is fairly simple;

  • Open your Facebook profile
  • At the top of the page, select ‘create’ and then choose ‘page’
  • Give your business page a name
  • Enter miscellaneous details

And there you have it, you’ve opened a Facebook page for your business. Although, there might be a few various details that you might have to take care of such as your cover photo, etc. But once you have established a Facebook Page for your business, then you will find that there are several benefits to having a digital presence. The first advantage is that it would be free. And the second benefit is that you will be able to post content and interact with your viewers and followers regarding their opinions of the content.

2. Use Facebook Groups to their full potential

Now that you’ve created a profile for your business that can be considered as the voice of your business, you must now embark on a journey filled with multiple emotions. You must join Facebook groups. As many as you can.

The reason behind this is that Facebook has allowed people to form international communities based on their interests. And chances are that at least one of those interests aligns itself with the nature of your business.

To better understand this, try thinking about your business and the kind of people that associate themselves with your product or service. If you offer adventure tours, then your target audiences could range from adrenaline junkies to college students on vacation. On occasion it may even include newly married couples on their honeymoon.

Point being, that the best way to interact with your audiences is to find them. And what better way than finding a group of people who all have the same interest as you’re looking for.

Another reason to use Facebook Groups

While these groups are certainly useful for connecting businesses with willing clientele, there is another benefit that is sadly the most neglected. Facebook groups connect people, with no prejudice aside from their interests. Which is why Facebook.com is one of the most perfect places to connect with businesses that offer services or products which would complement yours.

Another benefit of Facebook groups is that many businesses can find strategic partners across the world that can help in making that business more efficient. Many businesses even collaborate with strategic partners online to mutually boost brand awareness in the public by mentioning each other on individual Facebook Feeds.

3. Automate a blog with your page

Once you’ve connected with enough people through Facebook groups and other methods, you’re ready to not only listen, but speak too. If you’ve managed to gather a significant following of people who actively connect with your business, then the smartest step to take is to start rolling out your own content on a weekly basis.

Using a simple WordPress website, you can start your blog with a registered domain. Once you’ve managed that, your business can start interacting with people on a larger scale using a blog that you automate to be posted on your Facebook page. This will allow you to subtly inform your audience about a product or service that you provide yourself or endorse. Although, there are other sources of revenue associated with running a blog such as affiliate marketing and ad revenue.

But the main point should always be; to establish a community of supporters who identify themselves with your brand. By doing so, you will be able to promote your business through those followers who will use the most powerful marketing tool ever made; word-of-mouth.

4. Use Facebook Ads

Use-Facebook-Ads

Facebook Ads are a great way to promote any new products or service features and to encourage sales for your business directly through Facebook. They allow you to create a tailored message and send it to a specific audience so that conversion rates are at their highest possible.

Facebook Ads allow you to target audiences based on various demographic factors such as age, gender, income, location, interests, and even behaviors and recent purchases. But Facebook Ads can be customized even more extensively. This is because Facebook Ads hold categories within themselves. Ads can be in the form of image, video, stories, slideshows, and several others. Another way that Facebook Ads can be customized is based on your business objectives. These objectives could range from brand awareness campaigns to lead generation campaigns and everything in between. Add to that the fact that Facebook is one of the oldest and largest online social platforms and you have a great recipe for promoting your business with paid Facebook ads.

5. Post Video Content

In the last few decades, video content has gained immense popularity. With nearly every business using some digital marketing agency or the other to help them create video content. Of course, at a certain point many content creators choose to create real-life video content by producing and directing it themselves. However, there are also many businesses that outsource video creation to certain animation companies. And although the choice is yours, our recommendation for a video animation company is Animation Iconix. Thanks to their reputation and the positive reviews of their previous clientele, we’ve concluded that this is one of the companies that can help businesses gain traction by creating engaging animated video content.

6. Go Live Regularly

Go-Live-Regularly

Just as doctors recommend a regular and healthy amount of exercise, we recommend going live to interact with customers and other portions of your audience. This allows them to see your business as a relatable thing that is down to earth rather than seeing it as another corporate organization. But just like exercise, you shouldn’t overdo it. Many social media influencers find that going live once or twice a week is a good amount as it gives your business the opportunity to engage your audience without being around all the time.

This tactic should help increase your brands value in front of your audience by coming off as a fun-loving business that is free from corporate ruthlessness. What’s more, if you’re considering promoting a product then going live with it might be the perfect way to introduce it to your audience.

Listen to your audience

While this may be considered highly conventional, many businesses just don’t do it enough. Listening to the audience to find their honest opinions is one of the biggest advantages of going live. You can ask questions, clarify your own views and even interact with other strategic partners to promote your business.

Although data analytics is extremely helpful in this regard, listening to the voices of your audience in a one-on-one situation can be much more insightful for the right entrepreneur. Data can only tell you what your audience did or didn’t do, but listening to them can give you some knowledge about why they did or did not take a specific action.

Host giveaways

Since you’re already going live, one of the best promotional methods since the dawn of marketing has been a free sample. In the old days, it would happen in the middle of a mall, on a stage. But these days, giveaways can be very useful tools in driving free engagement to your business page, which is why this must be considered at least once every 6 months.

Guest Author: Zeeshan Hussain Bhatti is a blogger by passion and a Digital strategist & Tech Geek by profession, having a tech background with website iconix and experience in I.T development services, Zeeshan is eager towards exploring the modern-day tech landscape. With having interest in technology, Bhatti writes about leading edge technologies, Artificial Intelligence, Automotive Industry, Logo Designing and much more.

Sourced from Jeff Bullas

 

 

By Baishali Mukherjee

It is now a reality to use groups for positioning yourself, acquiring new customers, and many things more

Today, most of us are part of one Facebook group or another. But have we considered using the groups for business growth? Probably not! But it’s high time we start doing it effectively. Leveraging a Facebook group for business can yield delightful results. But before you create a group and start inviting others; it is important to know certain things, so that the group and its activities, create desired impact.

Wondering how to promote your brand in Facebook groups? You can do it either by creating your own Facebook group or by joining one managed by others. It is now a reality to use groups for positioning yourself, acquiring new customers, and many things more.

Scroll down to know more from experts about how to use Facebook groups to support and market your business.

According to Skannd Tyagi, founder, E Info Solutions, Facebook groups are a pool of people with common interest areas. “By joining such a group you have access to people who match the profiles of your target audience. These groups will provide numerous opportunities to create awareness about you and your brand simply by being proactive and helpful. To explore such opportunities, just write the keyword in the search section at the right-hand menu of the group’s page, and get going,” he shared.

Pramod K Maloo, founder Kreative Machinez, a digital hub for business promotional and marketing, believes, there are multiple benefits for entrepreneurs who are part of Facebook groups. He enumerated six of them-

Discussion – Facebook groups are sort of like the new kind of online forum. They have great features like polls, and large-format status updates to encourage group members to interact with your content. You will get regular updates on what is going on in the page, other social media handles.

Polls – Polls can be used to get customer insights and to understand what the customer wants and to receive immediate feedback from polls. Groups are a great source of immediate feedback, and if you build a niche group from the beginning, the feedback you receive will be extremely valuable.

Selected People, group – People who have been in constant interaction with a business page are definitely the ones who are interested in the services they provide. Therefore, making a group of those selected people and giving them the required content and information for what they usually look at. Drive these people to get engaged with the call to action, via campaigns, contests, takeaways etc.

The credibility of the brand – Having groups can help increase the credibility of the brand. The discussions that happen in the groups can also be used as answers or questions in Quora. By doing this we will increase engagement and presence on other social media handles.

Reach – It’s a viable way of building a highly engaged community of individuals who are likely to be interested in your business. You can reach out to masses without spending on Facebook ads.

Economical– If you can reach out to the masses plus targeted masses without pinching your pocket, it`s a great deal. So remember to always provide value to the customers and give them reasons to stay in the group.

Maloo also advised against talking about one’s business and products every time. “Sometimes small talks are important to make your products worthy. If you keep on talking about your products, things will be monotonous and people will lose interest. Also add company employees in the group, to increase the number of positive reviews about the services/ product offered,” he advocated.

Potential to Attract Future Customers Absolutely Free

Ajay Mittal, Founder, Kolkata Clean Air and Mera Workshops, has over the last few months, spent time talking to individual business owners to understand about how they generate business. Interestingly, one of the top platforms for them was Facebook and Whatsapp groups which were helping them attract more customers. He found that these groups can really help grow all business, be it, small or large, B2C or B2B.

The point Mittal wants to make is the sheer potential of Facebook group in attracting thousands of members, many of whom could be your customers, absolutely free. “If you compare this with any other marketing techniques, and the cost of reaching out to 10k eyes balls which are mostly targeted as potential audience having one or more common factors, and you will understand the immensity of the potential. That is not all, Facebook group posts allow easy communications and response which results in much higher engagements,” he opined.

Another interesting thing is that the posts stay in the groups forever so many people who view these posts can always search back when they are in need of the requirement, even months after the post was made.

Starting a Facebook group could be a great strategy if you are ready to do some hard work in building a successful group as Facebook Group Admin has much higher visibility and privileges than any other members. Mittal maintained that if you are into a business that has potential to take a community along you, should start building a group today.

Engaging successfully in a Facebook group

To engage successfully in a Facebook group you must make interesting posts. Now, what is engaging to a Facebook group might be very subjective and it depends on the target audience. It also matters what is the time you have made that posts.

There is no real secret to what makes a post successful, but a few things that you can consider as tips from Mittal’s observation:

1) Keep it short, easy to understand and very clearly highlighting the value proposition.

2) Most responsive posts are that are linked to a current event for e.g. Posts on beautiful hampers on Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day will attract more response around those days.

3) Ensure you have a completely updated and active Facebook profile as that is important for people to trust you before enquiring or buying from you. Most people after reading a post will visit your profile before connecting with you to buy.

4) Make sure you engage in other posts but somehow connecting your comment with the post and not randomly posting your comment on every post. Best is to read through comments and reply to people who you see as your target audience.

Isn’t it a great opportunity for business owners to grow their business using these free techniques? All one needs is to be consistent and explore more and more groups to discover platforms that help to generate business, find ways to engage with target audience. What is even more interesting is that it is not limited to just B2C business; in fact B2B businesses have much higher potential but with a totally different strategy of selling directly but through education based marketing and engaging communities by sharing tons of value to appear as an expert in your domain.

Feature Image Credit: graphicstock

By Baishali Mukherjee

Sourced from Entrepreneur

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Feature Image Credit: Shutterstock

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Sourced from Small Business Trends