by Matt Blum
In running an online business, you have a lot to think about. It is absolutely essential that you market your products and services, and the best way to do that? The key is social networking type services, specifically Facebook. Let us take a look at how we can market goods and services with Facebook effectively.
Facebook’s popularity is such that in January 2010, the United States traffic was 134 million unique users-bypassing the numbers of Yahoo’s results.
A study released in February 2010 found Facebook fan pages can be very effective in increasing sales, word-of-mouth marketing, and customer loyalty.
How should specifically market your products and services on Facebook? Well besides basic business contact details, it is important to put the normal “about” type promotional blurbs and some photos, but the real power of the marketing is in the status updates.
It is important to regularly post product promotion and “Facebook only” specials, but you need to be careful to use a “sell, sell, sell” approach all the time, as that will drive people away from your Facebook store.
Another thing to remember is as you go about your day to day business, keep a watch out for news stories that is related to your niche, it is sure to be of interest to your “fans”-these items make for good content as will some internal news items.
Summaries and links are a great way to drive traffic to these pages and generate conversation, it is about creating value for your “fans” and potential customers. Make your updates valuable enough for them to appear in their news feed.
Now that you have the page/store live, its time to get the word out! It is always good to set something like this up right before a large print or email newsletter is to go out. In this letter, come up with a great promotion to launch your page and include the link in the newsletter to go out.
Here is a good example: Exciting News- We Have Launched our New Facebook Page! We plan on updating it regularly with news from our company and the industry, also look for our “Facebook only” offers.
A great example of a store that markets well is Prosperity for Kids ( http://www.facebook.com/pages/Prosperity4Kids-Inc/144249442254079?v=app_112965568718470&ref=ts). Prosperity4Kids offers award winning products, information, and resources which make learning money fun for kids and easy for parents. The companies goal is to create a generation who can build true wealth and financial security.
If we example the store more closely, lets focus on the wall. If you look at the postings, there are far more suggestions on how to talk with your kids about money than selling products, in fact selling products takes a back seat to providing value. As a parent myself, I find tremendous value in the the discussions. I would want to engage this company more, and eventually purchase product. If you provide value first, you can sell later.
Another great example of a store that markets well is http://www.facebook.com/SaludCookware?v=app_112965568718470&ref=ts#!/SaludCookware?v=photos&ref=ts. Salud Cookware is a leading manufacturer of cast-iron cookware. On this link, lets take a look at the photo page, the company placed photos out there of product but they also posted photos that were submitted by fans. This is very important because it shows fans of the product in use and this shows potential consumers and new fans that these products work well, and comes across as very unbiased.
In order to market your goods and services effectively, create a dynamic Facebook page/store, get the word out, and provide valuable content that fans and potential customers see as important enough to add to their newsfeed.
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