It’s estimated that more than two billion people log into Facebook every month. That’s around a quarter of everyone on Earth.
And with those kinds of numbers, it’s obvious that the time when companies could ignore social media is gone. You have to go where the customers, of course. And these days, the customers are on Facebook.
But if you’re a company looking to expand your online presence, where do you start? Well, here are a few tips to help guide you through the process of building a great Facebook page and using it to convert visitors into customers.
Determining What Your Brand Needs
The first step in building a social media presence is to determine what your brand needs. Are you a traditional brick and mortar retailer looking to drive foot traffic to your store? Are you a digital marketing company looking for customers on the internet? Or are you more interested in raising general awareness of your brand?
Depending on what your needs are, your digital strategy is going to be different.
Traditional retailers will want to encourage customers to get their products in stores through Facebook marketing. Whereas creative and digital companies will want to use Facebook as a place to share their work and entice potential clients.
Take a moment and form a good idea of what your overall goals are. But no matter what you plan to use your Facebook page for, you’ll want to make sure that you’re engaging potential customers.
Creating An Engaging Social Media Page
There are a lot of people on Facebook, which means that there’s also a lot of pages that you’ll need to differentiate yours from. The best way to do this is to make sure that you’re providing visitors with engaging content.
Again, there are a number of different options depending on your needs. Video content usually does well. Try to showcase aspects of your product that customers might find appealing. Make sure your videos are going to capture attention, but keep them focused on your brand.
The same applies to written content and posts. Try to provide the kind of content that you would find interesting, but do so in a way that drives interest in your products or services.
At the same time, part of the value of social media is that it gives you the chance to interact directly with customers. Take advantage of it.
Many companies find that running contests or giveaways through their social media pages is a good way to engage with their customers. But be careful if you choose to go this route, especially as a brick and mortar retailer. There’s always a chance that the people entering the contest won’t really be customers. Some may not even live in the same state.
Part of running a successful social media campaign is making sure that you’re bringing in more revenue than your spending on the campaign, just like any other form of advertising.
Make it a dialogue with your customers. Ask them to comment on your posts with their own opinions. Give them a chance to contribute their own content to the page. Look for endorsements from customers. There’s nothing that builds trust in a brand like seeing that other customers are satisfied with their products.
Above all, be human. Try to build a community on the page of people brought together by a shared interest in your products. Not only will this help potential customers trust and value your brand, it will keep them coming back to your page to talk to the people they’re meeting there.
Social media provides a wide range of tools to interact with and build a better understanding of your customers, most importantly through analytics.
Using Analytics
Facebook offers a service called “Facebook Analytics” that can help you understand who is visiting your page.
It can help you follow how people find the page, what they do when they get there, and how you can help make sure that they come back.
Learning how to use these tools is an important part of turning digital media visitors into customers. And you can also use the information from analytics to help determine what content is the most engaging.
By combining good analytics use with good content, you can bring customers to your Facebook page and ensure that they keep coming back. And of course, the longer customers spend on your Facebook page, the easier it is to convert those visits into sales.
So how do you use Facebook to attract customers? What advice would you give about using it?
Further Reading:
The Top 20 Valuable Facebook Statistics – Updated May 2018 – Zephoria
17 Tips for Successful Facebook Contests – Social Media Examiner
10 Tips for Creating Content on Facebook That Gets the Thumbs Up – Wordstream
