Statistics show that the social media goliath known as Facebook is consistently and exponentially expanding despite some recent news that it has reached a plateau.  With that said, it’s extraordinarily important that your business has a presence on the largest social networking platform for the sole reason that the website’s utter ability to reach your target audience is nearly infinite.  However, you don’t just need to have any old presence on the prominent social media site, but you do need the most effective way to maintain a high-quality online reputation that solidifies your value with your target market.  Utilize these six strategies to accomplish all of those goals:

Leave Automatic Updates at the Door for More Fans

While it’s the easiest thing in the world to concentrate on one social media source and have that source feed into others, it is not effective as each social network has an individual personality and unique strategies that work.  Now, this does not include your operation and updates through HootSuite as those are (technically) individual updates based on the site.  However, what this does mean is that you do not want to link your Twitter updates or blog updates directly through your Facebook feed.

Instead, post a unique status update that includes the information you want to share.  In other words, post a creative description of your latest article with a link (and potentially an image) so that your Facebook audience knows that you care about what they read.  This will also increase the sharing of those articles with their Facebook friends and result in an increase of fans on your page.  Not a bad result for adding a few extra minutes to your social media updates, right?

Personality Acts as an Audience’s Pied Piper

The infamous Pied Piper led his followers with music that elicited behavior.  Consider yourself as the pied piper for your brand.  You have the tremendous opportunity to have the same impact on your audience by littering your updates with personality.  Demonstrate that you are a human, that you have a personality, that you have emotions, and do so by way of the written word.  So, if you make a mistake then you should humbly admit it, if you have an achievement then you should resound it loudly, and if you disagree with a comment then you should professionally debate your perspective.

Overall, these little demonstrations of your personality will allow you to lead your audience and become an authority figure with whom your fans value your content.

Brand Representation With Video and Photos Bring Visitors

Humans are visual animals; studies have shown that if an image is included with information, the information is remembered for a significantly longer time period than information that doesn’t include an image.  Similar research has also shown that audiences perceive planned videos images as an added benefit to their relationship with you.

To act on these findings, either create/find videos or photos that relate to (and market for) your company.  Remember that you want your brand message to come through clearly, concisely, and consistently.  The bottom line remains: the majority of people like to watch more than they like to read which will lead to more visitors for your Facebook page.

Interactions Creates Interest

Social media marketing isn’t all about communication even though that is what most social media marketers will indicate.  Instead, social media marketing is the integration of interactions to convert contacts to connections to committed.  So, to help you achieve your goal of eliciting interest and converting visitors in clientele, make sure that you include brand-specific interactions.

In other words, take the time to ask questions, create polls, respond to comments, and ask the audience to share your content.  Believe it or not, they will share the information and they will champion it to all of their friends if you have taken the right steps to get them involved with your business.

Planning Posts Escalates Brand Visibility Levels

If you go into social media marketing through Facebook with a blindfold, you will end up traveling in circles not knowing which way is left of right.  However, if you enter into this fantastic social networking website with the intention to plan your updates and schedule out your information publications, you will have a fantastic opportunity to capitalize on an attentive audience.

As for tools to help plan your updates, the best (free) software that is efficient and effective is HootSuite.  Take advantage and elevate your brand visibility by tapping into your target audience at the opportune times.

Track Results to Gain Results

There are countless emerging tools and analytics that you can use to better your audience’s experience with your Facebook page.  These statistics show the engagement and interest level throughout your target audiences.  You should look for trends, feedback, product reviews, and any other form of information that you can use to better your value.  If you monitor your social media marketing campaign(s), you will be able to improve your current results as you react and adapt to your target audience.

To say the very least, social media marketing through Facebook is an utter necessity for companies in today’s competitive corporate world no matter the size of your company.  Now, if you need help creating, initiating, or carrying-through the techniques listed above, feel free to contact us today.

Need Help?

If social media marketing is something that you are interested in but don’t know how to get started, contact us today to schedule your free marketing analysis.

Sources:
“The Essential Step-by-Step Guide to Internet Marketing”-E-Book
SlideShare.net
Image Source: HubSpot, “The 2011 State of Inbound Marketing”, E-Marketer.com