If you’re not using Facebook to market your business, ask yourself why not. The problem is probably rooted in fear. Some business owners are unsure what to do online and are afraid of making a mistake. Come out of your comfort zone and begin marketing on Facebook with these helpful tips.
If you’re having trouble gaining followers, you can offer a sweepstakes in return for their “Like”. Just place the sweepstakes in a tab on your company’s page and have them fill it out with their email address, specifying that only those who Like your page will be eligible for the contest.
Custom tabs need to be used when creating a Facebook marketing page. This organizes your information and keeps your site professional. For example, a contest can have its own tab so that it stands out.

The first step to success with Facebook marketing is having a solid base of fans. Having an excess of 5,000 fans is best. The interest in your products will automatically start to skyrocket once that threshold is reached.
Don’t ramble on your page. Don’t fall into the Facebook trap of thinking more posting is best. People don’t need to know every last thing you are up to. In fact, if you tend to ramble off-topic, you may actually be doing more harm than good. People follow you for a reason, so keep your focus on what you or your brand does best.
If you do not have time in the day to maintain a Facebook page, you should get someone else to do it. People will notice if your messages become to brief and start to lack substance. It is perfectly acceptable to have someone else run the page while you work on other aspects of the business.
Use pictures. Once you’ve got your site set up, share pictures with your Facebook friends and fans. These pictures can be of your product, or they can be inspirational or funny pictures. Your customers will share these pictures with their own Facebook friends, which raises your exposure across the site and will lead people to you.
Put together a Facebook contest. People love fun things like contests and quizzes on Facebook. It’s one of the things that makes the social media site so very special. It’s not that hard for your company or brand to put together a contest, and it can really open up the engagement level of your community.
Never, ever buy Facebook fans. There are a lot of opportunities to do so out there, but do not be tempted by them. While you will see a spike in the number of likes your page receives, it will have no bearing on making your brand more popular or increasing your sales. Instead, take things slow and steady and gain real, loyal followers. Quality is more important here.
Be sure to establish a personality for your brand. If people find your information to be bland, they will think that about your business. Have a little fun, but don’t offend anyone.
Promote your Facebook posts on Twitter. Twitter is an amazing social media for link sharing. If you take the time to craft some excellent Facebook posts, then get the word out by passing it through your Twitter stream. Don’t be afraid to tweet it a few times over the course of the week to help the content gain some traction.
Don’t relay too much on automation. It can be very tempting to automate your Facebook posting. More posts are better, right? That’s not always the case. People can sense an automated post, especially if all you post are links to stories from around the web. You won’t be building any sort of engagement between your audience and your brand.
Sharing posts about discounts or promotional events is a good way to provide valuable content for your audience but keep in mind that your subscribers will lose interest in your campaign if you only share this kind of content. Limit yourself to one promotional post a week and look for educational content you can share the rest of the time.
Post a “just for fun” post every so often. Not every post you write needs to be officially about your brand. People want to see that there are humans behind these fan pages. Every so often give them something that shows that you are. Repost a popular meme or something else that’s slightly random to your brand, yet still tasteful.
Use images wherever you can on your Facebook page and posts. This is a very visual social media platform, much more so than Twitter or LinkedIn. Perhaps only Pinterest is more visual in nature. Because of this, to get the most value out of your Facebook marketing, you need to have an image strategy. It’ll help you succeed.
If you do not have any relevant content to post on your Facebook page, think about posting questions that will led to discussions. This is a great way to keep users engaged when you have nothing new to share. Your page will stay active and will not seem stagnant at all.
Now that you’ve got your Facebook marketing basics, doesn’t it seem silly to have been so worried about it? Facebook offers so much potential for business owners. So sign on with confidence and begin your Facebook marketing campaign today. When your business begins to take off, you’ll be glad you did!
