3 Tips To Grow Your Brand Using Facebook Find the marketing groove for your brand on this champion social platform.
By Wade Harman Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Facebook is the choice of many startups and individual marketers who begin their online journey in business. Rightly so, as Facebook is the most popular social network on the planet, and many people call this network home. This is why it's such a great place to grow your business and create new clients and followers.
The concept of growing your brand on Facebook isn't new. However, as Facebook has evolved, so have the strategies that surround a successful marketing plan on this platform. Simply using the same old techniques doesn't always work quite as well as they used to.
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In this article, Rohan Sheth, founder of Rohan Sheth Consulting, Aaron Chavez, co-founder of Media Maven, and digital marketing expert Joel Contartese share three practical ways you can take your brand to the next level on Facebook. When it comes to evolving Facebook strategies and growing your brand naturally, these three guys know their stuff.
1. Use split testing in Facebook advertising.
Aaron Chavez, co-founder of Media Maven, explains one of his favorite ways to hyper target his following for his business is to use Facebook advertising. Chavez says this is the best way to pinpoint the exact follower for your brand on Facebook. "After testing all other popular ad platforms we've found that no other platform produces as high of a return on ad spend compared to Facebook."
Facebook advertising allows your brand to locate the follower who wants exactly what you have. One of the functions of Facebook ads is how it allows you to use split test messaging to find the best message that resonates with your followers. If you want to reach people in Montana who like to fish, love kitesurfing and enjoy drinking tea, then you can target them and only them with an offer.
In order to split test your ads, write two Facebook posts you can compare against each other, changing only one or two concepts within the post so you know which one is which. This way, you completely understand what the motivation is within each posting.
In the example below, PostPlanner used the same link destination, yet it changed the wording just a tad in order to see its followers responses.
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2. Continue to share quality content.
If there's one thing your brand should always do on Facebook (and everywhere else) is to share quality content. Joel Contartese, digital marketing expert and brand strategist, says, "Facebook is a game of give and take. Sharing high quality content which is both educational and informational is key to maintaining a healthy relationship with your audience."
When your brand continues to share quality content consistently, which helps your market, you build trust within your community.
It's important to remember even the little things like this on Facebook because, even though these people may not be actively purchasing a product or opting into your email list, they are consistently engaging with your brand. It puts your business top of mind with your target audience.
Jay Baer, author of Youtility, confirms this idea when he gave an example of the Geek Squad in his book. He shared how the Geek Squad continually shared ideas and tips about how to fix computers every day. A friend of the CEO came to him and told him he was giving away great information for free by doing this, and how they should be charging for it. But, the CEO of the Geek Squad understood if they continued to give quality information to their market, sharing how their audience could fix their computers, the day would come when their audience couldn't fix their computer -- and those people would come to the Geek Squad because they were building trust every time they shared valuable content and tips.
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Ian Anderson Gray from Seriously Social understands not every post he shares should be about his brand, but about how he can help his followers. Gray reports an 80/20 consistent sharing method for the best results -- 80 percent other people's content and 20 percent his own branded content. It helps further engagement and conversation and keeps his audience connected to his company.
It's the same way for Facebook. You already know what your target audience needs help with. If you don't, find out. Share tips and techniques they can use every day -- and give it away for free. You will establish a brand presence on Facebook which will keep them engaging. When the time comes to press the "buy now" button, they will be there because they remember all of those quality pieces you gave away.
3. Know what your audience wants on Facebook.
People have different habits everywhere they go. One may head to Twitter and immediately retweet three tweets in their stream. This same person may get on Facebook five minutes later and disregard the first twenty posts. You have to learn your audience and their habits on the Facebook platform.
Rohan Sheth, founder of Rohan Sheth Consulting, explains how interacting with your audience can help you gain the information you need to consistently give them what they're interested in. It also helps you learn the individual you are trying to target.
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"You can tell very quickly after making a social post if it is something people are interested in or not just by the engagement, shares, likes or comments," says Sheth. This helps me constantly tailor my content and adds to my audience."
One great practice your brand should be doing for the Facebook platform is to create three personas that your brand will be targeting. While you may have 100,000 followers on Facebook, it's impossible to create a relationship with every one of these people. However, with social media persona marketing in place, you will be able to get to know these people through targeting practices.
For example, your first persona your business creates could be "Jenny". She's a 30-year-old woman who works from home. She loves the Facebook platform for her business and she uses Facebook ads and content marketing to get her message across to her followers.
Using the facts from your three to five created personas you can then begin to target these "people" on Facebook and interact with them. Make sure you create personas your business is capable of being relevant to and impacting on a business and emotional level. This way, you can always know what your audience wants through the use of created personas.
Facebook is always evolving. However, these three tips will always give you a great head start with your competition. Remember Facebook is a "social" platform. While gadgets, tools and personas are great to establish connection, it's up to you to make a personal impact. So, get in the mix with your congregation and build relationships and trust.
