 |
| Illustration of Facebook mobile interface (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
If you own an e-commerce business or are thinking of starting one and you have not tried Facebook marketing yet then you better get started. First, you must build a Facebook fan page. It's fast and easy, simply look for the link on their website and fill out the information. Once you have done that, it's time to really begin customizing the page in a fun way that will attract visitors and get them to become fans. Below is a list of features on the fan page and how you can use it to market your business.
Wall - have fans leave comments in this area, share their thoughts, help make suggestions, ask a question, etc.
Info - write a description of your business, make it clever and remember to speak to your audience in a way that they will like
Notes - post the latest news regarding your ecommerce business, announce promotions, etc.
FBML - create up to 10 customizable html display areas that allows you to add anything you want
Photos - post pictures of your products and you allow your fans to share theirs
Discussions - get the conversation started, let fans give you feedback
Videos - post videos to promote your products and demonstrate how to use them, you can also allow your fans to share their videos
Events - announce special upcoming events or promotions
Reviews - let fans rate your products or services
Others - add other applications created by third party developers that are meant for use on the fanpage
Once you have your fan page set up you can begin focusing on how to attract traffic. Your page does not have to be perfect, it is one of those things where the more interaction you are able to get, the better the content. So start small and watch it grow and develop over time. Once you are able to better understand your fans, you can think more creatively about what to include on your Facebook fanpage. A good idea is to create exclusive coupons just for them. You can also develop a fun contest for them as part of a promotional campaign where the winner receives something for free. Try to think of as many creative and fun Facebook marketing ideas to increase the amount of interaction on your fanpage.
Ads are another great Facebook marketing tactic to get people to become better acquainted with your brand. However Facebook ads are in a lot of ways very different from other kinds of advertisements. The advertisements on Facebook cannot focus on direct sales like Google AdWords ads can. The reason is because they each have an entirely different type of audience. The group on Facebook are there to socialize whereas the group on Google tend to already know what they want and actively search for it. When trying to reach a Facebook user, you should not push your products on them. You have to first give them a reason to become a fan and then develop a relationship with them. Once the relationship is there, you can find interactive ways to keep your products and your brand fresh in their mind, and the chances of them turning into a customer is much better. What you need to do is apply to become an advertiser on the Facebook network and create banner ads that link to your Facebook fanpage instead of your e-commerce site.
Most recently, an increasingly popular Facebook marketing technique is direct selling. Since selling directly on Facebook is now all the rage, there is no reason for you not to do it. The big name retailers are just beginning to make their fanpages even more interactive by listing their products there. Those that have already built a large community are discovering that merging e-commerce with Facebook is turning out to be very profitable.
Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/site_promotion/article_2325.shtml
