How to Use a Facebook Fan Page to Engage Your Audience & Discuss Topics
Facebook is no longer just a means of personal socialization on the web – it has become an invaluable inbound marketing & social media tool for successfully promoting businesses across the web in a very powerful way. A Facebook Fan Page enables business owners to create a profile specifically for their company or corporation, (as opposed to a personal profile page). This process has become a very powerful inbound marketing component.
The overwhelming impact of this medium is evidenced in magazines, TV commercials and marketing materials of every sort, which now solicit the consumer to visit and “like” their Facebook Fan Pages (VSS Fan Page). This is a clear indication that there is significant ROI (Return On Investment) to be attained by engaging in what once was a purely social activity, & now a primary method of the inbound marketing process.Here are just a few of the benefits of using a Facebook Fan Page for your company's inbound marketing strategy:
- FREE Advertising: With a Facebook Fan page, you have the potential to reach hundreds, thousands, even millions of consumers with a single post. This type of promotion & inbound marketing provides a ‘level playing field’ in that all businesses have the same opportunities for recognition and relevance, regardless of company budget.
- Established traffic: Even if you have difficulty making your website visible to online visitors, Facebook provides a platform with an already-established base of millions of visitors, all reaching out to interact with other Facebook users in the world of social media. Create your Fan Page and draw some of that attention to YOUR business or service! This is inbound marketing at it's essence.
- Consumer Engagement: It’s old news that consumers will more readily buy from companies they know, like and trust, rather than give their business to an anonymous vendor of goods or services. A Facebook Fan Page provides the opportunity to interact with individuals, to be recognized, and to display expertise that might otherwise go unnoticed.
- Valuable insight: Businesses pay top-dollar for intelligence on what consumers (especially their own target market(s)) really want; what complaints they have, what they like and dislike in a company or service. Inbound marketing through a Facebook Fan Page enables business owners to get ‘into the mix’; to interact with individuals and get to know them in a way that surveys and ratings results just can’t provide.
- Even though a Facebook Fan page is employed for business considerations, members still use Facebook primarily for social interaction. But don’t discount the inbound marketing value for your company, as personable engagement with your audience is the foundation for building relationships that can ultimately lead to a solid customer base for your business. DON’T: inundate your network with aggressive sales pitches and promotional advertisements. DO: Engage your audience with intelligent and informative discussions on both personal and professional levels. The result of such inbound marketing & genuine socialization will be a fan base who are far more receptive to any offers or resources you recommend to them.
- Even though you don’t want your Facebook Fan Page to be a blatant promotional advertisement for your company, you can still promote your business or service in more subtle ways:
a. By offering free items of informational value, such as special reports, whitepapers, lists of tips & techniques and so forth.
b. By using “call-to-action” graphics, containing text such as “Like This Fan Page” or “Visit My Web Site”.
c. By posting background information about your company on your Fan Page “info” tab. - Encourage your Facebook Community to interact with your Fan Page. Don’t make your page all about YOU and your business – let your fans know they have a voice, and entice them to use it with compelling topics, debates and conversational teasers.
Remember that users do not join Facebook so that they can buy something. The best thing you can do for your company’s Facebook Fan page – believe it or not – is NOT to sell something. Let your website do the selling. For your Fan page, get to know your Community, and let them get to know you. Be sure you know how to analyze this targeted web traffic.Use Facebook to build your social media "reach", connections and relationships, then lead them through to your own inbound marketing website, where they’ll be far more likely to buy from someone with whom they’ve already established a relationship in the more social Facebook Fan Page setting.
