Social media has become one of the biggest marketing tools in the digital age, and nothing more so than the platform of Facebook.
As confirmed in this recent article, Facebook now has 1.23 billion active users, and with such a huge influential power over consumer’s online activity, it has become the largest marketing portal for businesses worldwide.
But aside from throwing money at advertising a page and boosting posts, there are far simpler tactics that can enable even small businesses to enhance their return without the need for heavy expenditure.
Be Available
One of the biggest mistakes many businesses make on Facebook is not having their contact details available on the page.
As a consumer, there is nothing more infuriating than being caught up by a call to action, to find that there’s no way of even contacting the company.
Always ensure that your full contact details are listed on the page and that any call to action posts have a contact method included.
Be Relevant
Whenever you post on Facebook question the relevance to your audience.
Will they find this information useful? Informative? Amusing?
Is it going to make them act?
What are you trying to gain for this post?
Asking yourself questions such as these will ensure that you are targeting your audience more efficiently and becoming a help rather than a hindrance.
Don’t forget that Facebook is still seen as a very personal space to consumers, and pitching your business throughout their timeline will only encourage them to unfollow.
Be Organized
If you’re a small business, managing your social media can feel like a mammoth task that you simply don’t have time for.
When other business tasks can be more pressing than a social media update, Facebook and other social sites can soon become neglected and filled with posts that have been put up sporadically without any thought in the process.
Posting at key times is important to any marketing campaign as it gives your post the greatest amount of exposure to your audience. And therefore the greatest results.
This article details advice as to the best and worst times you should be posting.
Combine that with scheduling tools such as Sprout Social and Hootesuite, and you’ve got yourself a plan that can’t fail.
Be Successful
Once you’ve got your head around being organized it’s time to set a measurable goal of what you would like to achieve from a social campaign.
With the methods listed you can gain more sales and leads, but don’t forget to set a target that can be measured.
Do you want more views of your website or the phone ringing off the hook for your services?
Once you’ve decided this you can then use insightful tools such as Google Analytics, or Call Tracking systems such as this one.
Keeping a record of the activity generated from your campaign can make you see what’s been working and what hasn’t so that you can change your strategy if needed.
Social media marketing is constantly changing and can work differently for each business.
Do your research and you’ll be surprised at how it can improve your businesses without the need for a big marketing budget.
