Hello again everyone! 🙂

I’m back once again to write in this blog about how Facebook can be used to promote crafts and DIY businesses and also about the most important measurements for Facebook marketing strategies. I hope you find this blog useful and that you enjoy the reading!!!

Facebook is a powerful platform with which your business can reach an immense number of people. Businesses can help people find products or services that they look for, it connects and engages with current and potential customers, creates a community around your business and promotes other content that you might create, including webinars, blog articles or others.

Getting Fans on Facebook 

• Worldwide, there are over 1.86 billion monthly active Facebook users.
• There are 1.15 billion mobile daily active users.
• The most common age demographic is 25 to 34 which is many businesses’ target market. Possibility to engage target market.
• 76% of Facebook users are female and 66% are male. There is not a very big difference between these percentages which means you can reach both through Facebook.

Creating a customized business site in which you can write information about your business will allow people to become fans of your page. Facebook permits other features that will help engage your community creating interaction and shares with discussion forums, videos, photos and testimonials.

Web Site Links

Facebook allows you to enter one or more links to websites where people can learn more about your company. For instance, it is popular to use links to direct people to a company´s blog or website. According to Halligan, B. and Shah, D. (2009) , this links generate (if any) very little SEO value because they are usually no follow links. However, this tool can still drive people to your website or blog.

Facebook Live

For DIY and crafts marketers it is worth to know about Facebook live where businesses can live streaming of an event or of a tutorial. This is a powerful tool when it comes to encouraging people to do their own work from home and sharing tutorials and information with customers and fans. Click in the following link to see an example: http://bit.ly/2nBeBpw 

Electronic Word of Mouth

When a customer or fan has liked your site and you post a photo, video, etc. that they like, they are likely to share it with their friends which produces a multiplying effect leading to a very powerful form of electronic word of mouth in marketing. According to a study conducted by Khosravani, S. and, Mohammadkazemib, R. and Rezvanibe, M. (2014) eWOM impacts directly on customer’s decision to purchase a product or service as well as the quality of the expertise that the reviewers have on the product. Click here to find out more about eWOM and its influence on product purchase. On the other hand, there is little control over who and what is posted on Facebook, for instance, it is very easy for an angry rival or an old employee to post harmful comments that could affect your business. It is important to invest time and effort on maintaining control over the content that appears on your Facebook.

Replying to Messages

You can see on Facebook business pages the time it takes for a company to reply back to messages from customers or people interested in your business. People nowadays want a quick response and by turning on your notifications you can keep track easily your messages. It is important because:

• You want to keep activity in your business site
• You want your Facebook page to show a good time response which is measured by the platform.

Post consistently 

Facebook has made it easy to post consistently with an scheduling tool. When you want to publish any relevant information to your business, just click the arrow next to “publish” bottom and select schedule.

“Consistency builds trust”. In order to achieve success, a company’s brand should maintain presence and brand voice. These will boost brand identity and creates an emotional respond from customers or fans.

Fill Out your About Section

Imagine a customer or a fan clicks on ads that your business has created or it pops up in their news-feed. If they are interested about the product, they will want to know more straight away and About page can provide them with information about you such as website, telephone, email and your business story.

Measuring results on Facebook?

Here are some Facebook metrics that businesses should be measuring: (Click here to find out where and how to do this)

• Fan Reach: Organic Reach. It shows you how many fans have seen your post.
• Engagement: According to Facebook, with regards to post level metrics, “engagement is the number of people who clicked anywhere in your post” .
• People talking about this: Measures how many people liked, commented and shared your posts.
• Click-through rate: Shows you the number of people who clicked on a link in your content, watched a video or seen a photo.
• Negative feedback: It shows the number of people who didn’t like something in your content or in their news-feed.

And once again,dear readers,  I hope you find this blog post useful to help your business to improve Facebook marketing. Thanks for reading and I will see you again very soon!!!

Lara de la Rosa

REFERENCES:

Facebook for small Business, How to get Discovered and generate new Business, Constant Contact (2016) [Online] http://img.constantcontact.com/docs/pdf/facebook-for-small-business.pdf [Accessed date: 24th March 2017].

Halligan, B. and Shah, D. (2009), Inbound Marketing get found using Google, Social Media and Blogs, [e-book] Available:  https://www.dawsonera.com/readonline/9780470550175, John Wiley & Sons, [Accessed date: 20th March 2017].

How to use Facebook for Business, Hubspot, [Online] Available: https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/53/blog/docs/facebook_for_business_ebook_hubspot.pdf [Accessed date: 20th March 2017].

Ernould, E. (2013) 6 Facebook Metrics Marketers should be Measuring, [Online] Available: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/facebook-page-metrics/ [Accessed date: 28th March 2017].

Khosravani, S. and, Mohammadkazemib, R. and Rezvanibe, M. (2014) Investigating the effect of Electronic Word Of Mouth on customer’s purchase intention of digital products [Online] Available: http://www.growingscience.com/msl/Vol4/msl_2014_296.pdf [Accessed date: 24th March 2017].

Rem, J. and Schneider, A. and Baum, N. (2014) Social Media Networking, Youtube and Search Engine Optimization, [Online] Available: http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.brighton.ac.uk/docview/856362270?pq-origsite=summon&accountid=9727 [Accessed date: 26th March 2017].

Smith, M. (2011) How to measure Facebook Engagement, Social Media Examiner, [Online] Available: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-measure-your-facebook-engagement/ [Accessed date: 27th March 2017].

Webster, L. (2016) The Disadvantages of Facebook for Business Needs, [Online] Available: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/disadvantages-using-facebook-business-needs-38685.html [Accessed date: 12th April 2017].

Zephoria, (2017), The Top 20 valuable Facebook Statistics, Updated March 2017, [Online] Available: https://zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/ [Accessed date: 24th March 2017].