Chances are that your company or the company that you work for already has a Facebook page. Facebook is the biggest social media network and its acceptance is constantly increasing (Cox et al, 2014); therefore, it does make sense for your business to be seen out there.

A successful Facebook marketing strategy can impact not only your customers but also their friends, hence it enables your business to attract new customers. Besides, it is a low-cost form of advertising. As every channel has its pros and cons, there are also factors to be considered. Therefore, how business can use Facebook effectively?

Fortunately, there are researches available containing information that your Facebook marketing campaign can benefit from.

Pictures play an in important role at the Facebook world; therefore, a thoughtful selection of the images for your company profile and status updates is essential. Page design is also considered an important factor for consumers (Hansoon et al, 2013).

Moreover, the business profile should always be involving and updated with valuable information for its members, without an overdose of posts and contests; as it can result as the opposite effect as desired. Contests are only favorable if they really provide value for the customer, otherwise it is just a waste of time for the brand (Hansoon et al, 2013).

It is also important to consider if your target group is a Facebook user and that Facebook is the right tool to advertise to them. One example is that fashion and beauty business are more successful than luxury brands at Facebook marketing: one reason is that Facebook is open to everyone and luxury brands’ target group appreciate exclusivity (Hansoon et al, 2013).

Good examples of brands using Facebook marketing efficiently are Nike and Toms.  Nike does not use its Facebook page to focus on sales or promotions, but to enforce the brand, constantly promoting their design researches, quality and exhibiting their products lines at different pages, according to each target group.

At Toms’ campaign “one-for-one”, whereas the company donate one pair of shoes for each pair of shoes bought, the whole project, including charities that the company supports, is presented at the Facebook page. Toms also engages with its consumers posting fan-provided content on their social media. The company has been successful on targeting Millennials with their campaigns.

Nike and Toms’ strategies seem to be working; considering the number of pages likes: 22.6 million and 2.9 million, respectively. Following are images of another two successful brands at Facebook marketing; Microsoft and Aerie (HubSpot, 2017).

Further information about them and additional brands are at HubSpot.

Furthermore, negatives comments will arise eventually, which should be seeing as an opportunity and not a challenge.  The negative comments enable business to increase its reliability by replying to them instead of deleting, which consequently demonstrates that the company cares about its customers opinions (Hansoon et al, 2013). It is a good practice to always listen to your consumers and try to reply comments and questions as much as possible, in order to improve brand credibility.

Facebook has a lot of power comparing to a website for its capability to interact with consumers, therefore, it is more an engagement tool than marketing itself (Cox et al, 2014). Thus, use the interaction opportunity to embrace your brand and share your expertise, instead of using the platform to sell. Consumers will find it annoying and instead of engaging they will see you as spammer.

It is also important to include metrics to measure the results of your strategy. Information such as best times to post, number of likes, comments, fans and so on should be monitored continually to achieve positive results (Brown, 2012).

In a nutshell, results will not happen overnight, therefore, the key is to have a strategy in place and be consistent and patient at the same time. Be authentic, demonstrate across your posts what makes your brand different from the others.  Facebook marketing is about engagement an entertainment, without overwhelming its page members. Therefore, to find the right balance is a crucial step.

Following are some useful resources for further information:

• The Kissmetrics Blog demonstrates a list of social media management tools used by experts that are useful to update Facebook pages.
• The video tutorial from HubSpot YouTube channel teaches you how to analyse Facebook insights in order to improve your content strategy.
• The video from Kimberley Ann Jimenez YouTube channel provides Facebook marketing tips for getting more engagement. There are other interesting videos regarding Facebook Marketing in her channel as well.
•  The video from Moz Youtube Channel, Rand Fishkin suggests ways to optimize Facebook traffic.
•   Forbes is a one-page guide on how to marketing your business on Facebook.

References

Brown, E. (2012). Working the crowd: social media marketing for business. London: BCS.

Cox, T., & Park, J. H. (2014). Facebook marketing in contemporary orthodontic practice: A consumer report. Journal of the World Federation of Orthodontists, 3(2). doi:10.1016/j.ejwf.2014.02.003

Hansson, L., Wrangmo, A., & Søilen, K. S. (2013). Optimal ways for companies to use Facebook as a marketing channel. Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, 11(2), 112-126. doi:10.1108/jices-12-2012-0024

HubSpot (2017.). 9 Brands With Brilliant Facebook Marketing. Retrieved November 22, 2017, from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/facebook-marketing-examples

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HubSpot (2017.). 9 Brands With Brilliant Facebook Marketing. Retrieved November 22, 2017, from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/facebook-marketing-examples