This guide to Facebook Marketing is written by guest writer Amy Porterfield. Amy will be presenting with Darren Rowse and Lewis Howes in a free webinar for ProBlogger readers this Wednesday. Register to get access to this Webinar here now.
One Billion. That’s the number of users Facebook will hit in a matter of months – if not sooner. The powerhouse network continues to climb.
Did you know that two billion posts are Liked and commented on each day and, on average, Facebook users spend over 700 BILLION minutes a month on Facebook? There’s no doubt your ideal audience is on Facebook right now.
The key is to figure out how Facebook’s mega population can help you position your blog as the leading source in your industry while helping you increase your overall traffic and leads.
When it comes to Facebook marketing, you’ve got to have a plan. If you go at it without a strategy, your Facebook efforts could quickly become a huge waste of time.
To help you get clear on your Facebook plan, consider these four steps as a roadmap to Facebook success.
Step #1: Set Up Your Foundation For Facebook Success
Step #2: Quickly Grow a Lucrative Fan Base of Quality Leads
Step #3: Create Ongoing, Massive Engagement
Step #4: Turn Your Fans Into Profitable Super Fans
A closer look at each step will help you understand how these steps can grow your online presence, attract your ideal readers and build your blog.
Step #1: Set Up Your Foundation For Facebook Success
Before you can attract high quality leads to your blog, you must establish a solid Facebook foundation. The first step is to make sure your Facebook Page is optimized and reflects your brand impeccably. With almost a billion people on Facebook, you need to make sure your Page stands out from all the noise.
Facebook is the ultimate platform to brand yourself and your brand. You can do this by creating a customized wall image as well as a custom welcome tab.
A welcome tab is the page all non-fans land before they see the activity on your wall. This customized page will allow you to create a strong call to action that will get non-fans to click the Like button and become an instant fan of your Page. A custom welcome tab can get you up to 50% more Likes than if you sent non-fans directly to your wall on their first visit. To get instant momentum on Facebook, begin my creating a solid foundation right from the start.
To better understand how to build your Facebook foundation, check out these useful articles:
- 7 Killer Apps For Building Custom Tabs On Facebook – All Facebook examines seven popular tools for adding tabs to your Facebook Page to help you get the Like and grow your fan base.
- How to Create a Facebook Business Page in 5 Simple Steps – Anum Hussain offers step-by-step instructions on how to create a Facebook business page.
- 5 Ways to Optimize Your Facebook Page – Maya Grinberg gives you lesser-realized features on and around your Facebook Page that can be optimized to best reflect your brand.
- 40+ Great Examples of Facebook Fan Pages – Kevin Muldoon shows you some creative Facebook Pages that will inspire you and give you some ideas for your own Page.
Step #2: Quickly Grow a Lucrative Fan Base of Quality Leads
When it comes to Facebook success, numbers matter. Hubspot [http://hubspot.com] completed a study of over 4,000 Facebook business Pages and found that Pages with at least 501 fans drove 3 times more traffic than Pages with less than 501 fans. But even more promising, Pages with 1,001 fans or more generated 21 times more traffic than pages with less than 1,000 fans. That’s a huge jump!
Your fan count matters, however, numbers are an empty metric without quality. You must attract high-quality fans that will become avid readers of your blog and are invested in your business. A Page full of fans who will never become paying customers is a huge waste of your time.
To attract your ideal audience on Facebook, you first want to make sure you understand who you want to attract. Get clear on your ideal blog reader so you can craft Facebook posts that will grab their attention and keep them coming back for more.
To explore new ways to attract your ideal audience on Facebook, take a look at the following articles. They are all packed with valuable fan attraction takeaways you can test out on your own Page.
- Can Facebook Campaigns Grow Your Fan Base? – Melissa O’Keefe explores the specifics of successful Facebook campaigns and how they can build quality fans and followers.
- Facebook for Websites: Social Plugins for Your Blog and Business – Kissmetrics provides a great review of Facebook’s social plugins to give bloggers options for integrating Facebook onto their websites.
- Use a Facebook Campaign to Find New Fans – Matt Robison illustrates how Facebook ads, when done right, can be an excellent source of traffic for your blog.
- How to Time Your Facebook Posts to Reach the Most Fans – Jeff Widman of PageLever will answer the questions, ““How frequently should I post on my Facebook page?” and “When is the best time to post?”
Step #3: Create Ongoing, Massive Engagement
Engagement equals massive value. The key is in knowing what triggers drive your fans to discussion. Once your fans are engaged with you on your Facebook Page, you can easily move them to take action.
If you want to use Facebook to attract new blog readers and drive leads, it’s essential you provide a high level of content and quality information that delivers massive value and entices your fans to share it with their friends.
If you want your fans to take action, you must make an effort to educate, empower and entertain your fans. Don’t worry; you don’t have to do all three at once! But the next time you post, make sure you pack your post with a punch and deliver content your audience will want to devour and share.
Facebook recently added a new public metric to Facebook Pages. In the left column, right below the number of fans, you’ll see a number that reflects the number of people who are talking about you on Facebook at that moment (sharing your posts, liking your content, commenting on your updates, etc.). The metric is labeled “Talking About This” and when it reflects a lot of conversation, it’s great social proof. The challenge is that most people struggle to get their fans talking and in turn, increase this metric.
If your “Talking About This” number is low, it’s likely that your content is falling flat with your audience. If that’s the case, do this quick test. Look at your last 10 posts and answer these four questions:
- Do my posts reflect what my core audience wants?
- Do my posts give valuable info my audience needs?
- Are my posts enticing enough to keep their attention?
- Am I creating content my audience will want to share with their friends?
If you answered no to any of the questions above, reevaluate your content and get clear on the type of posts your audience will want to devour and share. If you don’t know, ask them! Facebook is a great place to get great feedback from your ideal audience (and it’s free market research!).
To learn a few new strategies to get your fans talking even more, check out the following articles:
- The Blogger’s Guide to Meaningful Engagement on Facebook – Neil Patel gives you valuable tips and tools to help you break through the Facebook noise and grab the attention of your audience.
- 7 Ways To Craft Your Facebook Posts For Maximum Shares – Mari Smith is the “Queen of Engagement” on Facebook and shares with you proven strategies that will give your content massive viral visibility.
- 3 Reasons Using Apps For Posting On Facebook Works Again – Lep Widrich explains how third-party apps for posting had a bad rap on Facebook, but with the recent changes, these apps are smart solutions that can save you time.
- How To Use Facebook And Blogging Together For Your Business – Renee Warren shares how using both Facebook and blogging, separately and together, will help your business.
Step #4: Turn Your Fans Into Profitable Super Fans
When Facebook first started to gain massive popularity, there was a lot of talk about how it was a great place to network with potential customers and build relationships. And while that’s still true, ……
If you only focus on building relationships with Facebook, you’re missing out on an extremely important fact – Facebook is a thriving marketplace where you can turn lukewarm fans into Super Fans.
What’s a Super Fan?
Super Fans are Facebook users who have opened their Facebook profile, giving you access to their name, email address, likes, interests, connections and so much more. In addition, they’ve purchased from you, spread the word about you and your business to their friends and connections and have encouraged others to purchase from you as well.
Super Fans do what any marketing department would kill for, all for free. You want as many Super Fans as you can get.
The key to moving your fans up the ranks to Super Fan status is by setting the foundation for your Facebook Page, attracting quality fans and providing value via your posts and conversations on Facebook. Each of these steps will ensure that your audience sees you as the go-to source in your niche. When you know your fans challenges or needs, and can offer them solutions, you are positioned perfectly to move your fans to action.
Here are some useful articles that will help you move your fans up the ranks to Super Fan status:
- 9 Facebook Marketing Strategies to Build Super Fans – To ensure that your time spent on Facebook is valuable, follow these nine rules that will lead you down the path to more engagement and overall fan growth.
- How to Use Secret Facebook Groups to Enhance Your Business – Phyllis Khare shares tips to grow your business by using one most underutilized features of Facebook, Facebook Groups.
- The Real Reason Your Customers Don’t Like You on Facebook – Jay Baer of Convince and Convert shows you how important it is to activate and encourage the customers who have already liked you on Facebook – instead of focusing all your time on attracting new fans.
- How To Turn Your Facebook Page Into A Lead-Generating Machine – Facebook is the optimal social network to collect leads. This article will give you the strategy needed to create a Page that will continually attract your ideal audience and entice them to give you their contact info in exchange for a valuable takeaway.
When it comes to Facebook marketing, there’s a widening gap between those who get it and those who don’t. When you get clear on your own Facebook marketing strategy, you can more easily use this powerhouse network to drive more exposure and traffic to your blog.
Want to learn more about using Facebook as a Marketing tool? Register for a free webinar with Amy Porterfield, Lewis Howes and Darren Rowse to be held his Wednesday here.
Amy is the co-author of Facebook Marketing All-In-One for Dummies and a social media strategist for entrepreneurs and small businesses. Check out her latest Facebook marketing course, FBInfluence, by watching this video here.
