There was a lot of discussion the past few months when Google introduced their latest and greatest search feature called Google Instant. To some, it was a pretty significant and revolutionary feature that made a lot of marketers wonder where SEO, as well as Internet advertising was headed. Around the same time, Google also announced that they were planning to begin shifting away from ‘Search’ to be more ‘Social’ based.
There was a turning point sometime in 2010, by whomever tracks these stats, that Facebook actually surpassed Google in total ‘user time’ spent on the Internet. This news was significant as that was the first time that any Website did so in Google’s history on the Internet. This included the entire Google network: Gmail, YouTube, Google Buzz, etc., the whole entire lot.
Say Hello To My New Best Friend Mr. Facebook
This was a tremendous achievement for Facebook for changing the landscape of the Internet, as they started as a small college tech project just a few years ago. Insert… Watch The Social Network Movie Here.
So what would this mean for the future of the Internet? Will searching for content on Google or any other search engine be taken over by ‘Sharing’ information on social networks? Some would say that this has already begun.
Facebook and it’s growing ‘base’ is nearing 550 million active users. Now is the time to seriously start looking at how your business or marketing efforts are using this particular social resource.
Reviewed are some of the best ways that you can leverage and attract the enormous popularity and influence that is Facebook.
Creating A Facebook Page
If your business or website is yet to have any type of presence on Facebook, the first and best thing you can do is set up a Facebook Page. If you already have a ‘Page’ for your business, then it’s time to get more usage out of it.
Some Basic Rules Of Your Business Facebook Page:
• Try making your Facebook page as interesting, interactive and informative as possible, update it often
• Promote your page on your business or marketing site, by adding the ‘Find us on Facebook’ button wherever possible
• Reward your new and regular Facebook Fans by offering freebies, discounts and special promos
• Also create a Facebook user group, provide useful and interesting information for your audience
• Make sure you join other Facebook user groups, the ones that are related to your particular niche or industry
• Take advantage of all of Facebook’s available tools; track your presence using Facebook analytics
Using Facebook Places
Facebook not too long ago unveiled a ‘location-based’ service for businesses called Facebook Places. This can prove to be an enormous ‘social’ marketing opportunity for your physical business with a street address. You can also add your Facebook Places to your existing Facebook Page, or they can be combined.
The end result of using Facebook Places is your physical store front business with your address, along with a map, phone and other data, is put in front of the users of Facebook. This allows for a massive viral effect by allowing everyone to ‘Share’ your location with their friends.
Facebook Places is also conveniently and strategically built into Facebook’s advertising platform. This allows registered businesses to be able to target their ads with specific ‘laser’ like precision, such as location. Facebook Ads are on a PPC, pay-per-click basis.
Using Facebook Ads
Facebook is projected to generate close to $1.7 billion in revenue this year by online advertisers, this according to reliable sources. There are major companies currently reported to be spending anywhere from $15 to $20,000 per day on ads on Facebook. You’re obviously not expected to spend even a fraction of that for your business, but Facebook Ads may be worth investigating.
Tips On Facebook PPC Advertising:
• Be ‘exact’ specific with your keywords as well as demographic selections
• Use images that are descriptive, use specific titles and ad copy
• Make your ads interactive, compelling and engaging as possible
• Test, update and refresh your images and ad copy frequently, find the best results
• Initially bid high, which should get your ads approved quicker by Facebook
• If you have a smaller budget, begin with CPC ads, then gradually move up to CPM, as they are a better bet
• Make sure you use Facebook Ads Manager, you can download it as an app for Firefox
Whether you decide on a paid ad campaign or not, or use just the basic social media marketing tools available on Facebook, they’re growing extremely user friendly for marketers, which wasn’t always the case. You can quickly grow awareness for your business or website, so it should be a definite strategy to use in your online marketing efforts.