4 Ways to Effectively Market on Facebook TODAY!

Despite many imitators and spin-offs, Facebook remains the most popular social media site. It’s reach and broad demographics cannot be duplicated by any other social media company and few companies have found the successful ability to market to users while promoting leisure and social bonding. Companies are beginning to realize the vast reach that Facebook has and working to incorporate it into the businesses marketing mix. Advertising through Facebook is generally low cost and there are many ways that a business can begin utilizing it to advertise a product or service with little legwork and effort.

Here are four ways you can begin marketing on Facebook today:

1. FACEBOOK ADS

The easiest way to market through Facebook is to use the company’s own advertising platform and it’s not as expensive as you might think. Facebook Marketplace ads are targeted by demographics and interest and will get your ad to the people most interested in your product or service. Facebook offers a multitude of data on the performance of your advertising campaign and can show you how your ad performs with a variety of target audiences. Through this click-through promotion, you can also drive website traffic even without people making a purchase. With Facebook Marketplace, you can set ad budgets so you can easily control the expense of your promotion and contain costs.

2. GET YOUR AUDIENCE TO SHARE AND SHARE AND SHARE…

Humor is appreciated by everyone and one of the quickest ways to market is to encourage users to do it for you. A humorous video or ad posted to your businesses timeline will encourage users to share it with their friends. This is the key to viral marketing. However, companies must be careful to not appear to be simply trying to sell their products. People are very sensitive to the perception that they are being used by a corporation and anything that is overtly focused on driving sales will quickly be recognized. Always consider your audience and the types of things they enjoy on their newsfeed.

3. SPONSORED STORIES

Sponsored Stories are another method to market through Facebook that capitalizes on the appeal of “word of mouth” advertising. Sponsored Stories will market your product or service to friends of people who have liked your company’s page or claimed an online offer with your business. Studies show that people are more likely to buy a product or use a service that a friend already uses because it is considered to be a known risk. This service will promote your company to users friends and list them as the person who has utilized the product. This encourages people to sample the product or service themselves. Sponsored Stories have been shown by Facebook to be almost 50% more successful than Facebook Marketplace ads, though they are more costly.

4. PROMOTE YOUR POSTS!

In kind with the previous method, Promoted Posts are another option that Facebook offers. Users of this feature can guarantee that their ad is seen by a certain number of people. This avoids the likelihood that users miss ads because of poor timing or lack of use. With the Promoted Posts option, you can also choose to have your advertising post sent to friends of fans who have liked your company’s page or product. This can increase your reach and the demographics of the friends of users of your product are likely to be similar to those people who already use your product. This improves the odds that the people you are marketing to will be within your target audience. Also, this method is very inexpensive. A single promoted post option begins at only five dollars, even the smallest local company can afford to add this option to its promotional mix.

Facebook Marketing can be overwhelming in the beginning, but starting with a single option and expanding once you are comfortable with the service will allow you to experiment and judge how each service works for you. No one option is right for every business, however, no business can safely ignore social media as a marketing platform.