google analytics

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Marketing Tip: Facebook Pages

I've been blogging for a while about marketing tips. Usually my inspiration comes from things I see, experience, need, or sometimes from other people. One thing I've noticed is that there's a lot of integration and places to find people and businesses on the web.

Take me for example. You can find me on:

Bloggers should consider setting up a
Facebook page to cross-promote your blog. ~ Brenda Meller
Plus on my two blogs. The one you're reading now, http://mellermarketing.blogspot.com/ or my LinkedIn blog, http://15minutesadayonlinkedin.blogspot.com/. 

I started poking around my marketing blog the other day and discovered I have one blog post that has over 18,000 views. I'm still trying to figure out how/where it might have been picked up. The blog topic was about a great experience I had at a Tim Horton's drive-through, so my guess is they may have shared it somewhere. 

But this got me thinking about how I'm promoting my blog. Right now, I mainly do cross-promotion on LinkedIn, Twitter, and occasionally Facebook. My blog is just a hobby for me. I enjoy marketing and like helping others. I'm not using it for serious business promotion like others are doing. 

This got me thinking -- what if I really wanted to make my blog more widely read? And what about the other people out there who want to gain blog readers, but really aren't sure how to do it? 

Which led me to my next conclusion - Facebook. It's where people hang out. If you're reading this, there's a good likelihood you found this post on Facebook. (tell me if I'm right by posting a comment to this blog)

I'll admit - I log and check into LinkedIn maybe once every day or so, poke around, read some posts, look in the groups, then I'm outta there. Twitter is something I dabble in from time to time and lately I've been using for digital notetaking (that's a blog topic for another day), but I don't spend a great deal of time there. 

But Facebook - what fun! I can have virtual conversations with all of my 498 closest friends. We share stories, highlights of our day, posts from other websites, jokes, pictures of our families, videos, etc. etc.  And I will proudly admit when I have the time, I'll spend (not waste) a good hour on Facebook just hanging out. It's kind of like eating junk food though - I can take it only in small doses at a time, but I'll indulge when I can. 

My guess is you're like me when it comes to Facebook. There are a whole other active/inactive group of people on Facebook whom I'll call "readers" (rather than lurkers). They see the value of Facebook, but either for personal/privacy or professional reasons, are only a spectator and don't participate in conversation, "likes" or any of the other stuff we do while on Facebook. That's totally okay, too. These people are among my FB friends and might be blog readers, too.  

So back to Facebook page for your business. If you aren't a marketing professional, why set up a Facebook page if you're only using Facebook on a personal level? 

Did you know you can set up a FREE Facebook page for your business?
Did you know you can set up a FREE Facebook page for your blog?
Did you know you can set up a FREE Facebook page for your organization?
Did you know you can set up a FREE Facebook page for your cause? 

Do you see a pattern here? You pick what you need to promote. Facebook gives you a place to do it free.
And if you're like me, you may not want to accept friend requests from people you don't know, but you use FB for personal and professional reasons, and you want to provide a way to engage with people you don't know well. 

PLUS: If you struggle with website design because you're too small, don't have a designer, or don't have the desire to spend (not waste) the time and money into creating a website, use a Facebook page instead. 

It's really easy to do. 

  1. Start by visiting www.facebook.com/pages/create.php. Click the obnoxious green button that reads "Create a Page."
  2. Follow the step by step instructions. Facebook makes this process super easy. And if you make a mistake, you can always go back and edit your information. You'll choose a major and sub category, then select a product or company name, then agree to terms and conditions.You an upload a picture or skip it for now, write a short description in the "about" section, add in additional address, website info (I pointed my page to my blog), or skip this for now. Choose whatever best matches your business / blog / cause. Facebook will not deny you access if you choose the wrong category. :)
  3. Save your changes.
  4. Gain page followers. After you save your changes, you'll now be able to start inviting friends to your newly created page. You'll want to promote on your personal page and encourage people to give your page a "LIKE." 
  5. Give your page a simplified username. Once you get to 25 "likes" on your page, you can personalize the page address to something that is easy to remember. As a page manager, you'll see in your "Insights" section at the top of the page how many people have liked your page. And once you receive 25 likes, you'll see the link to give your page a username. Choose something that is as short and easy to remember as possible, like this: www.facebook.com/MellerMarketing 
  6. That's it! If you're a blogger like me, consider reposting a summary of the blog topic and a link to the blog in your Facebook page. 
What's a Username on Facebook?
It's a simplified page address.
~ Brenda Meller

As of right now, I have 39 likes on my page. That's in just about 3 hours. And I promised I'd give a shout out to the 25th person who liked my page. It was pretty close, between my friends James and Christy. Christy works for Gift of Life Michigan, which works with the organ donor registry program. Please consider signing up with them if you can, and give their page a like: https://www.facebook.com/GiftOfLifeMichigan

Now I have 41 likes on my page. This is more exciting than an ebay auction! In comparison, prior to posting this blog, I had 15 followers. I'd say my blog test was a pretty successful project. Hope it provided you with some insights, too.

Please share your FB page in "comments" and I'll give your page a "LIKE" on Facebook, too. 

Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels: , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)