The Key to Facebook Success

Running a Facebook campaign is not as easy as it looks. This article will teach you the keys to unlocking the marketing potential within Facebook. Professional grade strategy creation and implementation is of paramount importance for the success of a Facebook campaign. If your strategy doesn’t measure up, then you’re essentially trying to cross the Atlantic in a kayak. Facebook is a sea of people. You need to give yourself the right vessel to reach them all. Your strategy is that vessel. The key is what guides you to a winning strategy which can drive awareness and sales.

The key to Facebook engagement is (drum roll please):

1. To give people a reason to gather around you
2. To provide people who have already gathered a reason to listen to you.

The first key applies best to venues, business to consumer and retail companies. Reasons these companies can give include: offering coupons, deals, insider information, early releases, backstage passes or other events passes. The reason people would want to gather around you is to get what others can’t. By making your Facebook page a source for exclusive information/deals you incentivize people to gather around you. Don’t be afraid to be creative in offering something of value. By knowing who and where your consumers are and what they value, you generate reasons for users to join your page. City Lights Cruises, for example, a party cruise service, created a Facebook page to give away coupons and promote deals in the different cities in which they operate. By starting with a professional strategy, they knew where their customers were on Facebook  and what they wanted. As a result, their Facebook fan page grew to over 400 fans in just a few months.

The second key, providing Facebook fans a reason to listen to you, relies on great content. This is not just throwing up awesome video, a great piece of writing or funny cartoon. The first step is to know your target. It is only by knowing who you are trying to reach and listening to them, that you can create content that actually reaches and engages them.

What is even better is that you do not need the absolute best video, writing, cartoon etc, in the world to have content that can help drive awareness and sales. Having professionals create your content will help to ensure that your message can break through the clutter in this saturated space. Poor quality work will undoubtedly get ignored or worse, dilute your brand.

An example would be a law partner who specializes in personal injury and who is also a biker. By being involved in a group that may be more prone to injuries (knowing your target market), say bikers, you are able to gauge a need by the group for what their rights are if they get injured. By providing some basic information for free, such as legal rights of bikers, you become an active, trusted member. Another example might be if you own a company that services pets, giving advice, presenting articles, giving tips ranging from caring for a sick dog to where to meet other singles who like pets, would be great for a pet group. For best results, make sure this information is free. Sales will follow once trust and credibility are developed.

While those keys will help point you in the right direction, success in Facebook marketing takes time and persistence. Facebook changes often – from layouts to advertising rules. Therefore strategies may need updating. The rules of the game are always subject to change. So unless you or your employees are prepared to put in the hours needed to run a campaign properly, you may achieve desired results. Hiring an agency that stays on top of best practices for Facebook and has run successful campaigns before is always a good option. More importantly, they may be the best option for you. They are the ones who are truly best and creating a strategy, finding your target audience developing content, implementing your strategy and measuring success.