Facebook has emerged as the number one social networking site since its launch just eight years ago. With close to 800 million active users, and the invention of Facebook Fan pages, marketers are turning to it in the hope that they can reach a broader audience.
Today on the What’s Next Event blog, we have a collection of simple tips that can be implemented into your Facebook marketing strategy.
Facebook’s Edgerank algorithm works by promoting content that has the greatest number of interactions from your friends to your wall.
Posts to your Facebook page are highly unlikely to actually be seen on your fans’ walls unless they have engaged with you in some way. This is even more relevant now with the changes to Facebook and the presence of the “ticker”.
Let’s imagine you have created an effective Facebook advert that drove traffic to your previously unknown FanPage. The challenge you now have is to engage your prospect with your brand.
There are many ways in which the consumer can interact with a Facebook page:
1. Liking Posts
2. Commenting on Posts
3. Sharing Posts
4. Uploading content
5. Tagging themselves in pictures and video
But what are effective techniques for securing these interactions, and turning your prospects into retained fans?
- 1. Short status updates. Ask your community questions that they can answer in two or three words such as “How is work today?” Or ”What’s the best thing you did this week?”
- 2. Status updates that invite fans to “fill in the blanks”. For example, “I love the weekend because __________” or “My top tip for new skiers is ________”
- 3. Photo galleries. A picture tells a thousand words. Facebook is now the largest photo sharing site on the planet, and if you encourage people to Tag themselves in pictures, they can spread like wildfire.
- 4. Weekly “Ask our team” sessions. People like direct contact with the representatives of the brands they loves. Promote these sessions as a Facebook Event in order to keep the online questions and responses manageable. Events allow the team to track attendees but don’t count towards the engagement statistics
- 5 Facebook Polls. As long as you post a topical, or thought provoking question, Polls are great for engagement and viral spread For instance: “Who’s going to win the X Factor may give great engaging. The question “Did you hire an accountant for your tax return this year?” may provide valuable insight into the type of users you have, and enable you to communicate with them effectively in future attempts.
- 6. Open your wall for fans to post their own updates and photos. When setting up your Facebook Fan page, enable this setting to make sure your fans feel they are part of a community. Even the occasional critical comment has often been addressed first by the community. They also find that posts with minimal engagement soon slip down the wall so are rarely seen
It’s important to realise that success on Facebook will not happen overnight. It’s is important to try, try, and try again until you find a range of tactics that work.
And remember, Facebooker’s are a fickle bunch. What worked on one occasion may very well, may completely slip by unnoticed on another occasion.
What techniques have you found effective? Tweet us @whatsnextevent to let us know
Amanda Hill will reveal how to effectively use Facebook in her seminar next week at the What’s Next Event, click here for more information.
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