Glen Stansberry Creativity Sparker, Wise Bread June 21, 2011
Love it or hate it, Facebook has proven to be a major source of traffic and income for small business websites. A recent study showed that Facebook shares are worth almost three times as much as a tweet. And these nuggets from this compelling infographic ought to give a good indication as to how important Facebook has become to e-commerce in general:
• 90 percent of consumers trust recommendations from people they know
• 67 percent spend more online after recommendations.
If your small business is selling products online, then Facebook can be a fantastic way to add social proof and find more leads. Here are a few ways to snag some of that Facebook traffic for your small business website.
1. Get to know your audience
Before you start, figure out if Facebook marketing is a good fit for your customers. After all, you may find that your audience or customers just arent going to catch the Facebook fever. Thats fine. Figure out what does work and focus your efforts there. Theres no sense trying to fit a round peg into a square hole.
If you find that Facebook will resonate with your clientele, then forge right ahead. Just dont put all of your eggs into the Facebook basket without testing the waters first.
2. Start tracking
If youre going to start Facebook marketing, youre going to have to track your results. Facebook Insights is a great place to start tracking shares, fan Pages, apps, or just a regular domain. And its free.
You can also start tracking sales from Facebook by setting up Google Analytics to track sales.
3. Start engaging
If you’ve got a fan Page on Facebook and have started to get a few fans, its time to start engaging them. Start conversations with your fans on the page. Ask intriguing questions. These are the things that will keep visitors coming back to your site. Facebook pages are fantastic platforms at generating discussions, so use it to the max.
Compete.com has found that 68 percent of people who “Like” retail fan Pages do so to stay current with promotions and sales. Use your Facebook page to post coupons and sales as well as product updates. You might even think about posting special promotions only to your Facebook page to reward your fans. (More on that later.)
Many small businesses make the mistake of simply setting up an RSS feed to automatically post content to the page. If you want to start sparking true engagement, then youre going to have to go to the next level and get away from automation.
Continues at: 10 Superb Ways For A Small Business To Friend Facebook : Marketing :: American Express OPEN Forum.
Related articles
- Facebook, Skype, And Small Business (smallbusinessmavericks.com)
- Tip Tuesday – 5 Small Business Tips to Hone Your Social Media Skills (bringtheentourage.wordpress.com)
- Facebook Profiles vs. Fan Pages (blogtelling.net)
- 5 Things That Don’t Work on Facebook Pages (and 5 That Do) (layhitters.wordpress.com)
