WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
In this lesson, we will discuss how to promote your business on Facebook.
Know How to Use Facebook
First, make sure that you understand the basics of using Facebook.
Facebook has more reach than any other social network. Although it
has a slower pace than Twitter, and business and political announcements
are usually noticed on Twitter first, at the time of this writing more
people use Facebook than Twitter.
A post on Facebook is a message typed to answer the question,
"What's on your mind?" Like a Tweet on Twitter, a post on Facebook can
contain text, photos, links and videos. Facebook, unlike Twitter (at the
time of this writing), does not limit the number of characters in a
post. (There were some articles in January 2016 suggesting that the
character cap on Twitter would be significantly increased, but the limit
is still in place as of the time of this writing, late April 2016). If
you have a long post, Facebook does not display it all in your friends'
newsfeeds, but provides a link to "more" to easily see the entire post.
Reacting
Facebook recently increased the number of ways that your friends
can react to your posts and you to theirs. The "Like" button now offers
the choices of "Like," "Love," "Haha," "Sad," or "Angry." This was a
helpful improvement. Before, if someone posted that a parent died, you
might have wanted to promote that post and let the person know you were
thinking about them, but didn't have time to type a comment. Now, in
that case, you can just use the "Sad" button to show that you share
their sadness over this event. It also allows you to react "Angry" to an
article about something you find upsetting without ambiguously
suggesting that you like the content of the article.
You can also comment on a post. Unlike Twitter, your comment will
show up directly underneath the post and will not appear on your own
Timeline. For many people, this makes it much easier to follow
conversations on Facebook than on Twitter.
You can share a post. That is, by clicking the "Share" button, the
post will appear on your Timeline as though posted by you. If it is a
link, you have the option of giving credit to the person who posted it
before you or you may chose not to do so.
Hashtags are also available on Facebook and work the same as they
do on Twitter. (Recall from our last lesson that a hashtag is any word,
or phrase without spaces, beginning with the # symbol. You can use
hashtags to organize your conversations and facilitate finding and
sharing content related to a given topic. One can click on a hashtag to
go directly to a feed of all the posts that have used that hashtag.)
You can bring a post to a friend's attention and, if their
permissions allow, post it on their Timeline also, by using the @ symbol
followed by their Facebook username.
Permissions
Speaking of permissions, you can avoid confusion on Facebook by
understanding that each user has extensive control of how things work
for them by setting different permissions. For example, to draw on our
last reference, whether being tagged (i.e., putting the person's
username in a post preceded by the @ symbol) will result in the post
showing on their Timeline can be allowed or disallowed in their
permissions. Same is true as to whether they can post directly on your
Timeline. Whether someone can identify you in a photo (tagging the
photo) also depends upon the permissions you have set. Whether you can
identify someone else (with a link to their profile) in a photo, even a
photo you made and posted on your own Timeline, depends upon their
permissions.
Who can see your posts and comments also depends upon your
permissions. You can limit your posts to just your friends, you can
include friends of friends, or you can allow anyone to see them. The way
different people set permissions differently can be amusing at times.
If you see a conversation that makes no sense--it appears to be someone
talking to an imaginary person that no one else can see--then someone
may be participating in the conversation that has limited the visibility
of their posts and comments to just their friends and you are not their
friend, but the friend of a friend. Or, they may have blocked you. That
is, the person in the conversation that you cannot see has told
Facebook to prevent you from seeing any of their posts or comments.
There are several other things that can be controlled by the permission
settings as well.
Blocking
One of the controls allowed users on Facebook can be very helpful
at times, amusing at times, and often offensive. It is amusing when it
results in nonsense conversations from a blocked viewer's perspective.
Blocking can be very useful if someone is bothering you or disrupting
what you are trying to accomplish on Facebook and doesn't take your
hints. Blocking is offensive to the person blocked, however, should they
discover you have blocked them. There are several other ways to prevent
these bad actions without directly blocking someone. Sometimes, it is
the best choice, however.
Ever-changing
Facebook is known for changing the way things are done. Much of
what I have written in this lesson above may be obsolete in the not too
distant future. Facebook also has a reputation for changing things
without proper announcement. Things will just begin to work differently
at times and the outcome of your actions may not be what you expected.
You have to be willing to accept the risk that things may change to use
Facebook as an important part of your promotional strategy.
Facebook not only occasionally changes the way features work, but
has also been known to undo the preferences you set. You may tell
Facebook you never won't to see a certain type of post or posts from a
certain person, but Facebook will, after a while, show them in your
newsfeed anyway. I guess they assume you might change your mind. It can
be annoying, though, to be constantly reinforcing the preferences you
set.
Promoting with Facebook
Free Promotional
Very similar to Twitter, there is much you can do to promote your
business on Facebook without having to pay Facebook for the promotion.
Basic strategies that need your attention first include creating an
inviting profile, learning to post content that is enticing or
informative, following others so they will follow you back, conforming
your content to the type of content that will get the most exposure on
Facebook (i.e. have the best "Facerank"), and using standard promotional
strategies (such as follow buttons on your website and including your
Facebook profile in your email signature, etc.)
In either free or paid promotion, the same general approach applies
after the above basics have been mastered. The three main steps to use
with either free or paid promotion are:
1) understand your followers
2) target the right audience, and
3) monitor your campaign.
Facebook differs from Twitter when it comes to a business identity.
On Twitter (at the time of this writing), a business profile is not
significantly different from a personal profile. On Facebook, you will
need to create a "Page" for your business that is separate from, yet
tied to, your personal profile. You must have a personal profile to
create a "Page."
When you click the "Add Page" button on Facebook, you are given (at
the time of this writing) the following choices for the type of page to
create: "Local Business or Place," "Company, Organization or
Institution," "Brand or Product," "Artist, Band, or Public Figure,"
"Entertainment," or "Cause or Community." If you have a brick and mortar
address for your business, you may select "Local Business or Place." If
you work from home or make most of your sales on the Internet, "Brand
or Product" might best suit your needs (unless, of course, you are an
artist, public figure, or entertainer).
To monitor your results, "Insights" are provided with each brand
"page." "Insights" are analytical tools that allow you determine what
factors make your posts most successful. "Insights" are not provided
with your personal profile, but are specific to pages.
There is no charge to create a page and there is no charge to use
insights (and it is not necessary to purchase promotions to use
insights). However, Facebook does limit the amount of exposures that a
brand page gets in order to encourage you to use paid promotion. That
is, posts on your brand page are less likely to show up in followers
newsfeeds than are posts from personal accounts.
As with all social networks, starting with free promotion is always
a good course for beginners, especially those with limited budgets.
There is much you can learn about growing your followers and targeting
their interest without ever spending a dime. It is good to learn as much
as you can before moving to paid promotion.
As we have stated before, the best way to take advantage of free
promotion is to enlist your personal profile to work with your brand
page(s). Personal posts get more exposure than posts on brand pages. You
can use your personal posts not only to increase the following on your
brand page(s), but also to promote the posts you make there. You should
take care, however, to avoid exact duplication--i.e. simply sharing
every post from your brand page on your personal Timeline. If you do
this, your friends who also follow your brand page will see many of your
brand page posts twice--which may become annoying and motivate your
friends to stop following your brand page to avoid the duplication.
On the other hand, because your personal posts are far more likely
to get exposure and be seen, you should share your most important brand
page posts on your personal Timeline. You can also talk about your brand
page and encourage people to click directly on it to view all of its
posts. This later approach, utilizing summaries of your last two or
three brand page posts in posts on your personal Timeline, rather than
outright sharing, can be a good strategy.
Paid Promotion
Facebook also offers a variety of paid promotional strategies. The three main approaches are:
1) to create an ad campaign to "build brand awareness" and increase the number of followers for your page or,
2) to create brand awareness and drive traffic to your website, or
3) to drive sales of particular products or services.
You can choose to promote posts or just run ads.
To learn the particulars at the time you are ready, go to Facebook
from your brand page and look for help creating and using ads.
As for costs, the minimum daily advertising spend on Facebook is,
at the time of this writing, $1.00 per day. The minimum cost per click
is $0.01. You are unlikely to see any clicks if you bid that low,
however. Interestingly, studies show that the average cost per click
(CPC) on Facebook is somewhat lower than the average CPC for Google Ads.
Facebook ads are more targeted, but the people are not actively
searching on Facebook like they are on Google.
Facebook, like Twitter, provides a wide range of targeting options
for paid promotion. Or, you can tailor your own target audience from
your own lists. You can use a number of these targeting options in
combination.
Also, very similar to Twitter, you can experiment with different
types of followers and different targeting strategies to determine which
works best by creating separate campaigns and monitoring the results of
your campaigns. In each campaign, you can focus on a certain targeted
group with different types of posts or ads. Over time, you can determine
which audience responds best to certain types of posts. And, you can
learn which type of posts work best over all audiences.
CONCLUSION
In this lesson, we discussed how to promote your business on
Facebook. Facebook has more reach than any other social network at the
time of this writing.
A Facebook post can contain text (with unlimited characters),
photos, links and videos. Facebook provides a number of ways that your
friends can react to your posts and you to theirs. In addition to liking
(with it's Love, Sad, Haha, and Angry variants), you can comment on a
post or share it. When posting, hashtags are also available on Facebook
and work the same as they do on Twitter. You can bring a post to a
friend's attention and, if their permissions allow, post it on their
Timeline also, by using the @ symbol followed by their Facebook
username. Facebook is known for changing the way things are done. You
have to be willing to accept the risk that things may change to use
Facebook as an important part of your promotional strategy.
Very similar to Twitter, there is much you can do to promote your
business on Facebook for free. In either free or paid promotion, the
same general approach applies. The three main steps to use with either
free or paid promotion are:
1) understand your followers,
2) target the right audience, and
3) monitor your campaign.
To monitor your results, "Insights" are provided with each brand
"page." "Insights" are analytical tools that allow you determine what
factors make your posts most successful. The best way to take advantage
of free promotion is to enlist your personal profile to work with your
brand page(s). Utilizing summaries of your last two or three brand page
posts in posts on your personal Timeline, rather than outright sharing,
can be a good strategy.
Facebook also offers a variety of paid promotional strategies. You
can choose to promote posts or just run ads. Facebook is cheaper on
average than Google Ads and provides better "interest targeting," but
cannot target people making a specific search like Google can. Facebook,
like Twitter, provides a wide range of targeting options for paid
promotion. Or, you can tailor your own target audience from your own
lists. You can use a number of these targeting options in combination.
You can experiment with different types of followers and different
targeting strategies to determine which works best by creating separate
campaigns and monitoring the results of your campaigns.
WHAT'S COMING NEXT
In our next lesson, we will continue our discussion of social media,
taking a look at the timing of your posts for best results.
by George Little
Copyright 2016, Panhandle On-Line, Inc.
License granted to Carson Services, Inc. for distribution to SFI
affiliates. No part of this work may be republished, redistributed, or
sold without written permission of the author.
For more information on the Internet Income Course and other works and courses by George Little, see http://www.profitpropulsion.com |
Maximize the value of your TripleClicks 
The
new E365 also comes with some great new Signing Bonuses! For each of
the first four entry steps, $10 is added to the new affiliate’s Signing
Bonus account. And both step 5 and step 6 add another $20 each. In
all, that’s $80 added to the new affiliate’s account just for entering the E365 contest. 
How are you doing on your