Facebook is no longer just a fun way to keep in touch with family and friends. Research shows that more and more businesses are making the shift to social media for branding and marketing purposes. If you haven’t considered this idea for your business, now is the time, otherwise you risk being left behind. One of the best ways to promote your business is to set up a Facebook Fan Page. Even though members may not buy anything online, the benefits of building an online community and establishing customer bonds are immeasurable.
Let’s look at some ways that a Facebook Fan Page can benefit your business:
1. Provides more exposure for your Brand
Creating a Fan Page enables potential customers and employees to find you more easily. It allows you to display company details, products, sevices and even special offers and coupons to attract buyers. Another advantage is that anybody can view your Fan Page, unlike personal profiles, where members have to be signed in to gain access. This means that your brand is on show to millions of active users.
2. Directs Traffic To Your Company Website
Facebook provides you with the option of creating a link to your website on your Business Fan Page. Even if only a small number of Facebook’s daily visitors are redirected, the number of visitors to your main website could be dramatically increased. Another benefit is that search and decision engines, such as Google’s new Social Search Feature, are now indexing content created on social media sites, like Facebook. This means that you could improve search engine results for your brand. When your Fan Page and website are linked, this will assist you in driving even more potential customers back to your site.
3. Develop Healthy Customer Relations
Customers no longer rely on conventional channels for customer services. They expect your brand to have a Facebook Fan Page where they can leave complaints, appreciation, queries or any other type of feedback. Communicating with your customers in this social manner can significantly enhance your relationship with them. Maintain your Fan Page well and you will be sure to spread your reputation and fan base.
4. Constantly Increase your Fan Base
Each time you or your fans interact with your Fan Page, the ‘news feed’ announces updates. These announcements are visible to you, your fans and all of your fans’ friends. This means that you are constantly exposing your brand to larger numbers of potential customers. It is hard to find any other permission-based marketing tool with the same benefits. Keep your customers happy and they’ll find your future customers for you.
5. Free and Easy to Use
Unlike traditional customer relation management techniques, a Facebook Fan Page is free to use which is a bonus for both you and the customer. In addition, it’s fast and simple to create with numerous features such as photo and video sharing, discussions and instant interactions. All this promotes customer interaction and ultimately expands your following.
6. Direct Connection between Company and Customers
Imagine the power of being able to contact masses of customers with the click of a button. That is what a Facebook Fan Page provides. You can e-mail all your fans at the same time or target specific groups based on geographical location, gender or even age range. The Events Application allows you to invite selected fans to your advertised special events or promotions, giving you even more control over customer management.
7. Community Interaction
Once you have cultivated your online community you will quickly start to notice fans getting involved and communicating with each other. This is major benefit, going beyond anything that TV, magazine or radio marketing could ever achieve. Your fans can be anywhere in the world at anytime and discuss your company and products.
8. Improve Business based on Fan Feedback
Due to the relaxed, social setting of Facebook customers tend to share more information than they would in a face-to-face or more formal situation. They are inclined to comment on your products and services, discuss experiences and complain when they feel their needs aren’t met, either by you or your competitors. Paying attention to your fan interactions provides you with constant, invaluable feedback which can in turn be used to improve services.
9. Get Close to your Customers
Another advantage of interacting with customers in this way is that they feel closer to you. Individual names and profile photos mean that audiences are no longer anonymous ‘blocks,’ an image that tends to prevail within other marketing frameworks such as TV and radio. Customers enjoy this intimate type of interaction and you can use this to your company’s advantage, particularly if you work closely with people, such as in healthcare or education.
10. Specialised Content
With so much scope for creativity you should try to include specialised content on your Fan Page. The key to success, and to keep your followers interested, is to create your page innovatively. Engage fans by asking their opinions and reward them by offering discounts and coupons. One example of a successful, innovative Fan Page is TOMS Shoes. They developed a ‘one for one’ scheme, whereby for every pair of shoes they sell, they donate another to a needy child. They attract extra customers to their Fan Page by posting videos of this generosity.
11. No limits on fan numbers
If you are already familiar with Facebook you will be aware that personal profiles are limited to 5,000 friends. The good news is that Fan Pages don’t have this limitation so your fan numbers can grow infinitely. You can speed up this process by posting frequently and updating your page with quality content.
12. Simple ROI Gauge
There is no need to concern yourself with how to measure the productivity of your Facebook Fan Page because that is all done for you. The ‘Facebook Insights’ dashboard gives you access to a set of domain overall analytics data, as well as per URL data. Included in these are breakdowns of fan demographics (age, location etc) and interaction statistics, such as comments, wall posts and ‘likes.’ If that isn’t enough for you, visit hootsuite.com where you can see clear charts and graphs displaying your page’s trends. This is particularly useful if you have multiple Facebook pages, as it allows you to monitor them all from one dashboard. Using these powerful metrics alongside information posted on your Fan Page will provide you with a deep understanding of your fans’ needs. In turn this will enable you to achieve your business goals and objectives.
13. Keep Track of Competitors
If you still aren’t convinced that your business needs a Facebook Fan Page, take a moment to consider your competitors. If just one of them sets up a successful Facebook Fan Page with a strong following, that puts them ahead of you and the chances are that with over half a billion users, more than one of your competitors has tapped into this ever growing audience of potential customers. If by chance your competitors haven’t already taken the lead, get ahead in social networking promotion while you still have the chance.
When used correctly, a Facebook Fan Page provides endless possibilities for marketing your business and expanding your customer base. With the added bonus of it being completely free, and the fact that it is one of the fastest growing marketing tools, your business can’t afford to not have a Facebook presence.
