Unfortunately, just building a Facebook page doesn’t mean prospects and clients will come to it. Attracting an audience to your Facebook page requires some marketing tactics to draw interest from the vast customer base Facebook provides (750 million at last count). Whether you’re new to social media marketing or just looking to get more mileage out of your current Page, these 6 simple tips will help grow your Facebook fan base:
1. Understand the Engine Driving the News Feed
Facebook’s News Feed is powered by an algorithm based on three factors: Affinity, meaning the frequency of interaction between a user and your page; Weight, meaning the complexity of the interaction, and Time, meaning how recently the interaction took place. Keep these factors in mind when planning your social media marketing plan.
2. Integrate your Internet Marketing Tools
Draw users from your website, blog, or online ads using Facebook’s built-in Badge generator. Badges advertise your Facebook page, including the number of Likes and your current status, and provide a link for users to find and like your page. Visit www.facebook.com/badges to get started.
3. Don’t Forget to Print It!
Don’t leave print advertising out of the fun. Draw attention to your Page on your business cards, print ads, and other printed material. You could add a simple “Find us on Facebook” graphic element, or you could even add your page link; just make sure you have created a user-friendly URL by setting your Username.
4. Encourage Interaction
Users won’t usually interact with your page unless your provide incentives for them to do so. Get more Affinity and Weight points by holding caption or photo contests, giveaways, or other prize-driven events. Poll your audience and get their feedback on topics relating to your business. The options are endless!
5. Don’t Wear Out Your Welcome
Aim for 3-5 posts per week to keep your content fresh, but in most cases it’s best not to go too much higher than that unless you have lots of fresh, quality updates that your followers really want to see. If advertisements from your business page are flooding news feeds of your subscribers, it will seem like spam and they’ll be hitting that “Unlike” button before you know it.
6. Track Your Progress with Insights
See what’s working (and what isn’t working) with Facebook’s built in analytics tool, Insights. This tool gives you a report on how much interaction your page has gotten over time, how many likes and unlikes, and even which tabs get the most interest.
Mandy Barrington is a web designer at online marketing firm RYP Marketing. Visit their Internet business blog for more tips and articles.
