I remember the first day I heard about Facebook. Not only was I overwhelmed with the idea of what I heard I could do or was doing, but when I looked at it I felt like it was way above my head.
Facebook has taken several different forms since that day and it seems to evolve with the times. Today, more and more users are trying to market their products or services using Facebook. In fact, only today I have seen various ads on the internet for social media and social media training.
Facebook’s growth will not slow down. Therefore, if you are not using Facebook to market your products or services, you should get in the game before falling behind. Many tens of millions of users around the world, mainly in the United States, are frequent visitors to Facebook every day.
Your friends
The whole foundation behind social media is being able to “live” in the world of your friends. Years ago we could be nosy neighbors, maybe even read the gossip column in the local newspaper. Today, we want our friends to post what they are doing at all times. I have several friends with whom I “lost touch”, but I still see almost daily updates regarding what is happening in their lives.
A basic model for locating friends within Facebook is that of your network. Where you live, what you do, where you’ve worked, and who your friends are can exponentially increase your number of relevant friends on Facebook.
Your groups
As an Internet marketer, you can use groups in a number of ways. You can join groups to network with other people who have the same thoughts, concerns, or needs as you (or you can resolve them …), or you can create groups for the same reasons. From what I can tell, there aren’t much better ways in the world today to attract such a strong fan base.
It is important to remember that as part of this aspect of social media, when you or a friend, or anyone else, joins a group that you are ‘related’ to, you will receive a note posted to your update feed. It may not sound like a great feature, but imagine someone praising you or your product and now it instantly appears on 10,000 pages of Facebook users.
Free and paid advertising
Facebook offers both free and paid advertising methods. I have used both and on both I would give mixed reviews.
Free classifieds are great, especially when using an image. If you’re on the right networks, your ‘ad’ can appear in front of literally millions of people with just a few minutes of work under your belt. Really! This is where you want to offer a product for free possibly to get the user interested initially.
Paid marketing ads on Facebook are available in much the same way as Google AdWords pay-per-click works. Facebook allows you to narrow down your target audience quite well and since Facebook is a social monster by creation, your ads are served to an audience that is more suited to your offered proposition.
I would encourage any business, be it owner or marketing representative, small or large, online or physical, to test internet marketing with Facebook. Downloading our book ‘Facebooking Craze’ is free and will give you more information on social media marketing. Marketers interested in getting more online sales for their business should get a copy at Facebook.com-ask.net