Facebook started as a network for college students but in 2007, they opened up their network to the general public and it exploded.  Facebook is now welcoming businesses and showing them how to engage their client base online.  But in order to do this, you must have a good idea of what you want to achieve.  Here are ten suggestions for ways to use Facebook for your business:
 

• Make your brand known.  What used to be done through television and radio advertising is now done largely online.  Due to the viral nature of social media, Facebook is an outstanding place to spread the word about your business.

• Get feedback.  Customers and clients can give you their suggestions, comments, and praises online with a few clicks of a mouse and provide invaluable feedback on how you’re doing. 

• Get data on your customers.  Facebook fan pages have automatic features installed that allow you to see what kinds of people are viewing your company’s information. This can help you be more aware of not only who actually sees your online presence, but who is interested in what you offer.

• Advertise. By engaging you on Facebook, your clients are giving you permission to market them directly.  This is infinitely more useful than direct mailing or other types of advertising because you have a pool of people who are already interested in what you offer.

• Inform people about your events.  You can create events on Facebook and invite people to attend them.  You can share information about the event, directions, even upload links and photos.  And anyone who accepts your invitation will have the event show up on their profile so all of their friends can hear about the event too.

• Drive traffic to your blog or website.  By posting links to your blog and website, you can create invaluable inbound links and direct substantial traffic to your site, increasing your rank on Google while at the same time increasing your leads and sales.

• Hold contests or advertise promotions.  Drive further traffic to your website and raise awareness of your business by holding contests or promotions.  Advertise them on your Facebook site and announce the winners.  You will be amazed at how easy and successful this can be.

• Upload photos and video.  Don’t just be a nameless entity – put a face on your business. Let people see a bit of your personality.  Uploading photos and videos to your Facebook is easy and it will arouse interest in your business.  People will identify with you as a personable
  company and will feel comfortable doing business with you.

• Get Fans.  Increase your potential pool of clients by increasing your fans on Facebook.  The more people know about you, the more they’ll come to see who you are.  Let your fans do the talking for you – each time someone becomes a fan, everyone on their friend’s list will know about you.

• Fan pages are visible to anyone, not just people who are already fans. 

• You can get visitor stats on your fans which can provide valuable marketing information. 
  You can target your audience by location, age, sex, education, workplace, and keywords.

• You can individually invite people to become your fans.

• Give people a chance to talk about you.  Word of mouth advertising.  It’s as powerful today as it ever has been.  You can only say so much about yourself, but there is no limit to the positive impact that comes from having others talk about you.  The best part is, they do most of the work for you and you reap the benefits!

Using Facebook is a great way to get started in social media, but you’ll want to compliment that by adding other ways for users to interact with your content and drive traffic back to your site. 
 
To accomplish that, contact us today to learn more.