Build a Facebook business relationship appropriately, like you would any Business Partnership.
C how it is done!
Marketing on Facebook, or with Facebook, is a worthwhile endeavour and a good investment of your marketing time and budget.
Facebook unveiled their 10 year Plan last year plus 2017 Q2 results show Facebook finished the quarter with 2.006 billion monthly users and 1.325 billion daily users. This pretty well guarantees that Facebook is not going anywhere but UP and you would be wise to embrace this powerful marketing tool without resisting any longer.
With the increasing global connectivity, many marketing tools and the continued, unabated growth of Facebook, you must work on building a healthy business relationship with the platform and, here are a few Tips and Best Practices to help you do just that.
Behaviours that are appropriate for making a Facebook business relationship work:
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Clarity
About your business opportunity
What is it that you do/sell? Ensure a market need for the products and services you will sell and be aware of what any competition do, how they do it and where they are leaving gaps you can fill.
Who do you serve? How do you serve them better? With so much noise out there, you are more likely to succeed by being unique in your offer and approach and by targeting a niche market that you study more than anything else.
About your Business Goals and Objectives
Clarify your long-term goals. Is Facebook the right partner to deliver the outcomes that will achieve your vision? You will need to have clarity about whether you will use Facebook as a distribution channel or advertising platform?
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Communication
Listen and learn how your audience ‘speaks’ and speak the same language they are already saying. This lets people connect with you on their level. Thus making them feel more comfortable, builds trust and leads to long lasting relationships that turns into revenue.
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Commitment
This is not a one night stand. Commit building a relationship over time and adding value that will lead to you being welcome in you audience’s Newsfeed.
Plan to commit to playing by Facebook and social media Rules. This entails no spamming, over-done promoting, avoiding negative, politic al, and other controversial content that may alienate your audience.
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Consistency
Absence does not make the heart grow fonder and a strong, consistent execution of your message is key. Don’t bombard one day and disappear the next. You want your audience to get used to hearing from you, expect to hear from you and, look forward to it!
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Creativity
The way you depict your Brand online creates a perception with your Audience and it is what you do to their mind that may or may not convert them into customers.
Use your creativity to inject personality into your Brand, but always remain appropriate.
Use colour, images sizes and video that comply with Facebook’s recommendations.
Here is a free cheat sheet I compiled to help you design your content in the best dimensions for all the major platforms.
6. Collaboration
What are you good at and what should you outsource or find expertise in-house?
You need a variety of skills to be good with Facebook for Business. I have proven that the hospitality and leisure small businesses do better content generation from within than by outsourcing to a remote third party. No one outside of your business can possibly have and communicate the same passion that you do!
Hence, the reason I offer HOW TO coaching services. I coach clients on Best Practices over a six-month period so that the essential Facebook Marketing skills, that I have tried and continue to test daily, are transferred into their business so they can better service their online audience; integrate all their marketing efforts in true “Modern Marketing” style and ensure an effective customer buying experience across all platforms.
7. Curiosity
To be successful with marketing on Facebook you must be curious about the psyche of your audience. Who is responding to what and why? What works and what bombs? Who is your audience vs. your ideal customer? Facebook Insights provide you with all the information you need to study your audience behaviour so that you can target your potential buyer more effectively and ensure better return on investment of your time and marketing Rand/Dollar.
8. Confidence
Have the confidence that Facebook has got your back but don’t exploit or take advantage of any perceived weaknesses, just because you can. For example, you may not run your business from a Personal Profile although you need one to set up a Business Page.
I mentioned the 10-year vision at the outset of this post. Facebook has a plan to stay at the cutting edge and with that comes constant change. Be confident that changes and algorithm updates are improvements and don’t let them set you back. Find out how to leverage the tools and make them work for your business.
I try very hard to keep my Tribe informed about recent developments that impact on their marketing success through my Facebook Page and Blogs.
When in doubt about what you can and cannot do, get Facebook’s approval. Read the latest Facebook Terms & Conditions
Read the latest Facebook Terms & Conditions and, support requests must be made through appropriate links in the Help Centre.
Be confident about working with Facebook but ensure you have an Exit strategy. You should not be totally dependent on Facebook for two reasons:
- You’re on borrowed real estate
- Your customer journey starts social and moves on to a more serious level
Remember this is Zuckerberg’s business and that you are building on someone else’s property. The audience you grow here, remains here unless you drive them to your owned ‘online home’ i.e. website or blog where you must collect their contact details, promote your business and entice them to part with their money.
9. Customer Journey
Always remember that Facebook is a SOCIAL platform. You are there to socialise with your friends and followers. Like any social interaction, here you may not be a silent wall-flower. You listen to react fittingly.
You are here primarily to Entertain, Education and Enrich!
Constant self-promotion is boring and inappropriate but when you are trusted and valued you can lead people to your online shop front, AKA Website, where they expect you to SELL to them!
10. DON’T DO IT!
- Invite all your friends to Like your Page.
- Chase Quantity over Quality.
- Shift the blame for irresponsible reactions.
- Rant about politics, competitors, customers or anything else at any time!
- Expect Free to be better.
- Spray and Pray.
- Use your personal Facebook profile to self-promote.
- Link and Share all your Facebook posts to your other platforms.
- Tag Customers or Companies inappropriately.
Over 60 million businesses who have Pages and, the over 4 million who advertise actively cannot be wrong, just play by the rules and Facebook will attract customers who will follow your sign posts to your sales office.
A major cause of company failure is that the right actions, which have been correctly identified, are not executed with appropriate energy and timeliness.
If you want to talk to Suze Bouwer about SHOWING YOU HOW to turn Facebook into an valuable lead generator, email or call +27114678222
Anything new and helpful here? Any other No-Nos or Best Practices that you can share with us?
REFERENCE ARTICLES:
http://www.adweek.com/digital/facebook-q2-2017/
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/241595
http://under30ceo.com/the-12-step-checklist-for-a-successful-business-partnership/
http://www.prevention.com/sex/facebook-etiquette-rules
http://www.businessinsider.com/ubs-mark-zuckerberg-10-year-facebook-plan-2017-3
