Why Facebook is a crucial part of marketing in business
Social media has evolved over the years and is no longer an ‘optional’ thing for businesses. Having a strong online presence is now considered an essential part of any marketing strategy – as it’s almost always one of the very first few touchpoints for potential customers to discover, learn, and interact with your brand.
Social media, and Facebook, in particular, is far more effective than traditional advertising because, while it has the same vast capacity to reach millions of customers as the aforementioned mediums, it also has the ability to generate and maintain active conversations with existing and potential customers alike.
Being an online medium also allows for effective tracking, and therefore more measurable results so your allocated budget is being spent more wisely compared to the ‘spray and pray’ approach of traditional billboards and tv commercials. Real feedback in real-time can tell you which advertisements were popular with your customers; making it easier for your brand to identify which messages are resonating with your audience best, devoting your resources to those instead and subsequently maximising your online advertising spend.
With the help of Facebook Pixel, Facebook can help push your customers through the funnel; leading to more conversions.
Worldwide, the average consumers spends 145 minutes on Facebook every day – during both their peak decision making times, and during their down time. With the introduction of allowing brands to integrate their Shopify catalogues into their advertising campaigns, it is now easier for e-commerce sites to thrive as customers are now able purchase items without having to leave the app.
Additionally, consumers take to social media after an experience with a company – whether it is negative or positive – and this is something that all businesses should be actively monitoring in order to mitigate any brand-damaging reviews and provide assistance to dissatisfied customers.
Facebook has evolved beyond a social chatting app into another branch of customer service with many customers opting to reach out directly to their favourite brands via their respective channels whenever they are experiencing issues.
For any company providing goods or a service, having a social presence is an absolute must.
How to get started on Facebook
Getting started on Facebook is easy!
Whether you’re totally new to the social scene or you’ve hastily scraped together a Facebook page but aren’t really sure where to go from there, here is our blog post about the basics you should have in place.
There are two facets to Facebook: organic content and paid advertising. Let’s break down the key differences between the two.
Facebook Content
Content, content, content! The term gets thrown around so often – but what exactly does it mean?
Content is essentially anything that gets published on your Facebook page – from business announcements (like new staff members, new websites, policies, management information) to fun things (such as sales, new stocks, products).
It is important that your content reflects your brand’s values and maintains a consistent tone of voice while still remaining engaging to your audience. Content should also encourage active interaction from your customer base, after all, the key part of social media is the ‘social’ aspect of it. Your content on Facebook should ignite direct conversations that you want to have with your audience – it’s not just ‘spray and pray’ on a digital medium.
Content can also be presented in a variety of ways which can range from blog posts, images and videos to infographics. Additionally, each post that gets published must have a message-relevant caption that accompanies it.
Sound like a lot? Because it is a lot.
It takes a lot of effort to build and maintain a rapport with your audience; it is better to have a slow build to attract an audience who genuinely love and regularly engages with your brand rather than hundreds of thousands of followers who passively see your content and keep scrolling.
As it so happens, you’ve reached a ragtag bunch of social media marketers who happen to be pretty good at creating and curating content (and actually love doing it too!)
We have some services to help you with managing your social media content, you can check them out here.
Facebook updates their advertising services so often, it can be hard to keep up with all their requirements and changes. #AintNobodyGotTimeForThat
There are so many options for advertising on Facebook, and while all are effective when used correctly, they can also eat up budget rather quickly if you’re not sure what you’re doing.
“Isn’t boosting advertising?”
In short, no, boosting is not the same as executing a proper advertising campaign on Facebook. Boosting is only good to build brand awareness and not much more.
A proper campaign can direct your audience to particular pages on your website, and help promote sales to the people who would be most likely to be interested in it (and therefore, more likely to purchase).
Even if you are on a shoe-string budget – Facebook ads can still work for you! You just have to know how to arrange your campaigns properly to get the most out of it.
As it so happens, we also have some services to help you with managing your Facebook Advertising Campaigns, you can check them out here.