Why Facebook Needs to Be a Part of Every Small Business Marketing Plan
With over 1 billion Facebook members and growing, your business can’t afford to not utilize Facebook to market its brand. More people are following brands on social media sites than ever before, which means that your small business marketing strategy should at the very least include a well-designed and maintained business Facebook page.
While nearly 90 percent of companies currently have a Facebook page, many just use this social media site in a very traditional “push marketing” way and miss out on the potential to reach more prospective customers. Outlined below are several tips to successfully use Facebook to market your business courtesy of Social Media Today:
- Determine your consumer persona. How does your target audience use Facebook? Do they visit the social networking site to research and gain information or would they prefer to engage in conversation? This critical information can significantly impact your Facebook marketing strategy.
- Strategically design your Facebook profile. Include keywords that not only describe your business, but would also be words that your consumers would type into a search engine.
- Create a “places” page. This will allow your customers to virtually check-in when they visit your place of business, essentially sharing with their own social networks that they like and support your brand. Since people tend to trust the judgement and recommendations from their peers on social media, this is a great tool for expanding your reach on Facebook.
- Use a content calendar to manage your Facebook page. Make yourself aware of the best days to share content on Facebook. Knowing when your customers are most likely to be active on Facebook can allow you to make the most of your small business marketing efforts online.
- Promote your Facebook page and posts. Include a link to your business’s Facebook page in your email signature and add buttons to easily link to your page on your company’s website, blog, or other social media network.
The formula for mastering small business marketing via Facebook can range greatly depending on the company and industry. The point is that you need to give attention to your business’s Facebook page as it can be one of your most beneficial marketing tools.
Are you currently satisfied with the results you are getting from your business’s Facebook page?
(Image via Facebook)
About 
Do you see a difference in the effectiveness of Facebook for B2C vs. B2B small businesses? Between those that have a brick-and-mortar presence and those that don’t (ability to “check in,” etc.)?
Hey Jeff, great question. Speaking from experience with our clients, B2C have a much easier time developing and executing social media marketing across all platforms. A B2B marketer must overcome a lot of challenges; the biggest being “humanizing” the brand online. No matter your target market, a savvy content & social media marketer must connect on a human level and show the benefit their service/product has on that person’s life (whether it be personal or professional).
Sorry. Remember this quote? “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.”
Just because facebook is the biggest “water trough” doesn’t make it the best place to drink. Part of the brand’s marketing plan, maybe, but risky too. When people remember that the original intent of Facebook was to be “sooial,” will they continue to view attempts at merchandising so favorably? And, what if that brand needs the support of the 20% (U.S.- more elsewhere)who aren’t Internet-connected? Zuckerberg has “drunk the Kool-Aid” (now miraculously changed to champagne) and we’ll see what’s next.
With havin so much content do you ever run
into any problems of plagorism or copyright violation?
My blog has a lot of exclusive content I’ve either created myself or outsourced but it looks like a lot of it is popping it up all over the web without my permission. Do you know any ways to help protect against content from being ripped off? I’d certainly appreciate it.
Hey Renate,
Here’s a great post that gives you a small snippet of CSS code that you can use to protect your content: http://goo.gl/0ZNCD