Facebook Marketing
Facebook started as a social networking site for college and university students in 2004.
With more than 60 million active users, an average of 250,000 new registrations per day, an average of 3% weekly growth since Jan.
2007 and active users doubling every 6 months, Facebook is the 7th most visited site in the U.
S.
A.
With growing number of visitors and users, Facebook is not only favored by the students but by adults, professionals and people from around the world making it one of the best places for online marketing.
The various features like applications, groups, events etc are the ways to spread the word out and bring the people in.
The best way to learn more about Facebook is by having an account there and trying out various features.
Here are the features that you can utilize to promote your products on Facebook.
1.
Profile Page: You can start off with a profile page on Facebook.
Your profile page is the platform where you can express your passion about a brand, a company or a product you want to promote.
You can make use of various applications, post photos, provide work info, personal info and provide appropriate description about your product.
Facebook is a place where people stalk profiles of others to know more about the person.
If you have your profile page made to impress others there are higher chances of getting more traffic from there.
2.
Facebook Groups: Facebook group is the feature where you can join groups or start your own group.
It is one of the simplest ways of viral marketing.
You can invite your friends to join your group.
In this group page you can post information, photos, events, news, comments, videos, discussion board, a wall for remarks etc.
As the members increase on your group you can notify them with the latest news, events etc.
However, there are few drawbacks of using this feature.
When your group is popular there are higher chances of spamming.
It'll be difficult to keep it clean and people might lose interest in your group.
3.
Facebook Pages: Facebook pages was introduced especially for the businesses to establish their brand presence.
This feature is similar to Groups with few differences: Pages are more customizable than "Groups", you can add Facebook applications, HTML or Flash making it more interesting than groups.
Pages have no restriction on the number of fans unlike groups.
Pages do not have the option to invite friends by fans.
The only way one can inform other members is by "Share" the page with their friends.
Pages are another best way of viral marketing.
4.
Facebook Events: Facebook events is an application where businesses or companies can promote their marketing events, campaigns, product launches etc.
Facebook event has a similar page like that of a group where you can have discussion board, wall, photos links etc.
5.
Facebook Messages: Facebook messages is the place where you can send messages to people who aren't in your profile.
Facebook has this feature where you cannot view other people's profile unless you are friends.
You can however send messages to the people you are not familiar with.
So you can use this feature to promote or inform about your business.
You need to be careful about spamming.
Spamming could lead to deleting your profile.
It is better to read the terms and conditions.
6.
Facebook Market Place: Facebook Marketplace is an online classified service.
Not many people are familiar with this feature.
In Marketplace you can advertise about your product and services and people who are interested in it will contact you.
When you receive a response to your advertisement, the particular person could view you profile even though he/she is not on your friends list.
Spamming should be avoided here as well.
7.
Facebook Networks: Facebook network is a group which has been categorized according to geography, education, work or other network means.
No member can have control over the network but like groups they can post comments, participate in discussion forums, walls, discover events, marketplace listings etc.
8.
Social Ads: Facebook offers advertisers to pay on CPC (Cost Per Click) or CPM (Cost Per Mile or Cost Per Thousand) depending upon the preference for social ads.
Social ads have very powerful targeting capabilities.
You can create your ad and limit it to certain group of people like certain age, sex, location, education, workplaces, keywords, political views, relationship status etc.
You can get creative in placing these ads.
9.
Invitations: Sending out invitations to add application is one of the strongest viral marketing scheme used by Facebook.
When you like certain application you can send invitations to your friends.
If your friends find it useful they'll add it too and it goes on spreading in the similar manner.
This means the application should be appealing enough to recommend others and to let others recommend it further.
10.
Sponsored Facebook Groups: Sponsored pages are Facebook Groups where we can customize the HTML of certain regions of the page.
The cost to rent this is very high.
It may cost up to US $100,000 per month making it one of the places with small number of advertisements.
With more than 60 million active users, an average of 250,000 new registrations per day, an average of 3% weekly growth since Jan.
2007 and active users doubling every 6 months, Facebook is the 7th most visited site in the U.
S.
A.
With growing number of visitors and users, Facebook is not only favored by the students but by adults, professionals and people from around the world making it one of the best places for online marketing.
The various features like applications, groups, events etc are the ways to spread the word out and bring the people in.
The best way to learn more about Facebook is by having an account there and trying out various features.
Here are the features that you can utilize to promote your products on Facebook.
1.
Profile Page: You can start off with a profile page on Facebook.
Your profile page is the platform where you can express your passion about a brand, a company or a product you want to promote.
You can make use of various applications, post photos, provide work info, personal info and provide appropriate description about your product.
Facebook is a place where people stalk profiles of others to know more about the person.
If you have your profile page made to impress others there are higher chances of getting more traffic from there.
2.
Facebook Groups: Facebook group is the feature where you can join groups or start your own group.
It is one of the simplest ways of viral marketing.
You can invite your friends to join your group.
In this group page you can post information, photos, events, news, comments, videos, discussion board, a wall for remarks etc.
As the members increase on your group you can notify them with the latest news, events etc.
However, there are few drawbacks of using this feature.
When your group is popular there are higher chances of spamming.
It'll be difficult to keep it clean and people might lose interest in your group.
3.
Facebook Pages: Facebook pages was introduced especially for the businesses to establish their brand presence.
This feature is similar to Groups with few differences: Pages are more customizable than "Groups", you can add Facebook applications, HTML or Flash making it more interesting than groups.
Pages have no restriction on the number of fans unlike groups.
Pages do not have the option to invite friends by fans.
The only way one can inform other members is by "Share" the page with their friends.
Pages are another best way of viral marketing.
4.
Facebook Events: Facebook events is an application where businesses or companies can promote their marketing events, campaigns, product launches etc.
Facebook event has a similar page like that of a group where you can have discussion board, wall, photos links etc.
5.
Facebook Messages: Facebook messages is the place where you can send messages to people who aren't in your profile.
Facebook has this feature where you cannot view other people's profile unless you are friends.
You can however send messages to the people you are not familiar with.
So you can use this feature to promote or inform about your business.
You need to be careful about spamming.
Spamming could lead to deleting your profile.
It is better to read the terms and conditions.
6.
Facebook Market Place: Facebook Marketplace is an online classified service.
Not many people are familiar with this feature.
In Marketplace you can advertise about your product and services and people who are interested in it will contact you.
When you receive a response to your advertisement, the particular person could view you profile even though he/she is not on your friends list.
Spamming should be avoided here as well.
7.
Facebook Networks: Facebook network is a group which has been categorized according to geography, education, work or other network means.
No member can have control over the network but like groups they can post comments, participate in discussion forums, walls, discover events, marketplace listings etc.
8.
Social Ads: Facebook offers advertisers to pay on CPC (Cost Per Click) or CPM (Cost Per Mile or Cost Per Thousand) depending upon the preference for social ads.
Social ads have very powerful targeting capabilities.
You can create your ad and limit it to certain group of people like certain age, sex, location, education, workplaces, keywords, political views, relationship status etc.
You can get creative in placing these ads.
9.
Invitations: Sending out invitations to add application is one of the strongest viral marketing scheme used by Facebook.
When you like certain application you can send invitations to your friends.
If your friends find it useful they'll add it too and it goes on spreading in the similar manner.
This means the application should be appealing enough to recommend others and to let others recommend it further.
10.
Sponsored Facebook Groups: Sponsored pages are Facebook Groups where we can customize the HTML of certain regions of the page.
The cost to rent this is very high.
It may cost up to US $100,000 per month making it one of the places with small number of advertisements.
Source...