Social Media 2013 Part 1: Exploit Facebook for All it’s Worth

Hello and welcome to the first part of my new series about using social media to build your brand on the Web.

As I told everyone in my post announcing this series, I’m approaching this as if you are a raw beginner (which honestly I believe many business owners are) so from the get go I’m asking everyone who reads this series to please not take offense at its tone.

I truly do not mean to insult, just educate you in a way that’s not going to turn you off to the whole Social Media process.

So let’s get things started right away with (in my opinion) the front runner of all social media tools for the moment Facebook.

 What is Facebook?

Facebook is arguably the social media tool that everyone from your neighbor to DiGiorno Pizza participates in.

Facebook really started out as a way for friends and family to stay in touch with one another. As the platform gained in popularity, business started to take notice, but that didn’t mean they knew what to do with it when they did notice it…but they learned.

Facebook and the Business Owner

As I mentioned in the above paragraph, big business has been smitten by Facebook and why not. There are over a billion people who use Facebook daily and why shouldn’t businesses both large and small connect with those people to get their products and services in front of them.

Here is an Infographic that can illustrate my point about Facebook’s media penetration…

 

You get the idea.

I wish that I could get the figures for one of these companies that run ads on Facebook, but that report would bankrupt me so…

It’s time to start building your brand with Facebook, and connecting with some of the billion people who frequent the site.

Start the Branding Process Now

Okay, it’s time to begin the Facebook branding process and we’ll do that by starting an account with Facebook’s advertising service.

Okay, you do not have to create a Facebook advertising account immediately to do some of the steps that I’ll describe now, but think along the lines that eventually you will need to start one in order to advertise.

The first step to begin with is building a Facebook Fan Page. This is a fairly simple process and I’m going to just use what Facebook already has published on their advertising page just because I could not explain the process any better than they do it there so…

Okay now you know how to create your fan page, so what’s next after you actually launch it?

Start Connecting with Potential Customers

First let’s just start out with posting important announcements to your fan page. If you have an upcoming event that doesn’t require a coupon it’s a simple matter of just updating your fan page with pertinent information about the event you’re holding.

Adding pictures from an event to your fan page is a fantastic way to engage with people through your fan page.

Taking it to the Next Level

If you haven’t taken this step yet, it’s time to open that advertising account with Facebook. After you’ve done that it’s time to choose how you’re going to start advertising.

My suggestion would be to begin by advertising your fan page first. The reason I recommend this step first is that I want you to reach out and touch people who aren’t familiar with whom you are or your business.

This is where you start to be creative because you’ll need to design your advertisement including what you’ll actually say in your ad. If writing your advertisement is something that you feel comfortable doing that’s great.

If you’re not a fantastic wordsmith, it may be prudent to hire a freelance writer to take on the job of writing your ads for you…remember you’re trying to make a great first impression on people in order to strengthen your brand.

Remember the golden rule of the Web…Content is King, and that extends to your ad copy.

This is the start of your branding process with Facebook, and for now I’m stopping here because I think this is more than enough to get you started with the simple things as far as Facebook branding is concerned.

If you’d like to know more about advertising with Facebook and using Cost per mille (CPM) and Cost Per Click (CPC) please contact me for more information about this subject.

The next step is taking control of Twitter and integrating it with your Facebook Fan Page. Part two of this series is slated for this coming Tuesday, which coincidentally enough is January the 1^st, 2013.

I want to wish all of you a very Happy and Healthy New Year and I’ll see you here on Tuesday.