No one doubts the effectiveness of networking in business. Online networking tools like Facebook and Twitter just take the same idea and multiply it exponentially. This short article is aimed at stimulating some ideas on how to use Facebook to increase traffic to your website. It’s not a how-to guide on setting up a Facebook account and it assumes you have some knowledge of what Facebook is.
The first thing to note is that Facebook is intended for social networking and the site has strict rules about using it for business. Facebook provides Pages (instead of user Profiles) for businesses wishing to promote products or services on the site. The main difference between a business Page and a user Profile is that Pages can’t be used to send or receive friend requests. Instead, you must wait for people to come to you.
This is obviously a limitation and many businesses choose to ignore it. By using a Profile for their business, users are able to accumulate large networks of friends on the site. They can update their status with products or events they’re promoting, and all their friends on the site will see details of the promotion on their News Feed. Clearly, the more friends you have, the more people will hear of your services, and the more new business you are likely to create. But, in using Facebook in this way, there is always the risk that Facebook will identify business users as breaking site rules and exclude them.
A more legitimate way of using Facebook for business is to create a Page. One example of a Thanet business promoting their services in this way is the Ramsgate garage, Kent Car Craft. Their Facebook page keeps clients informed of special deals, provides updates from their website, and even allows people to ask questions directly about specific jobs. Not only is this an effective way of retaining existing customers, it’s also a powerful marketing tool for gaining new clients. Kent Car Craft’s page has over 300 followers. Each of their followers will have an average of at least 100 friends of their own, meaning that Kent Car Craft is visible to thousands of potential new clients. All that for free.
Three tips for getting the most of out a Facebook business page
Don’t spam people.
It is tempting to put out as much information to as many people as you can but the trick is always less is more. People don’t like being bombarded with links and comments.
Get a vanity url
A vanity URL is a much neater option for your business. Instead of directing people to a link full of numbers, you can get a link that looks like “facebook.com/your-name”. Vanity URLs for your Facebook page are available here.
Link to and from your website
Make sure your Facebook Info section has your website address on for those people who want to find out more about your services. And always give people a link from your site to your Facebook page.
And with that in mind, you can be our friend on our Facebook page.
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