Feature | use Facebook

5 Ways to use Facebook to Get More Fans & More Sales

There is no doubt that Facebook is one of, if not the most popular social network in Australia.  According to socialmedianews.com.au in the June report, there were over 16 million Australian user accounts! So, how can you use Facebook to grow your audience?

As a business owner, how do you tap into this huge community? I’ve done a bit of research into Facebook Marketing and Advertising recently and want to share with you about 5 ways to use Facebook to get more fans and more sales.

1.  Use Facebook Graph Search

I signed up to the waitlist months and months ago but it never appeared. I’ve now just found out how to get immediate access to Open Graph.

1. Go to settings, change language to English (US)

2. Go to http://facebook.com/about/graphsearch/ and click “try it out”

3. Log out of Facebook and log back in and there it is! It looks like this:

Facebook Open Graph | use Facebook

Why do I want to use it?

To search for people you can “friend” and start to build a connection with or target for your FB ads.

For example, you can search for things like:

“People who like [facebook page] and [facebook page] who are not friends” or

“Bloggers who write for [facebook page]”

There are endless search terms…

Once you get this list of people, you can then either just like them or message them (but don’t be spammy) or copy their UIDs (user ID) into a list which you can then upload into Facebook as a custom audience!!  You can then create advertising campaigns and use your new custom list to make sure that your campaign is seen by a targeted list rather than a very general list.  Very cool.

2.  Use Power Editor

If you run Facebook Ads, you might already be familiar with the Power Editor.  You use it to create ads and to target the audience you want to see your ads.  You need to be using Chrome as your browser.  Full details about how to access Power Editor are here.

Facebook-Power-Editor | use Facebook

Why do I want to use it?

Power Editor allows you to create, manage and edit large numbers of campaigns at once – handy if you run lots of ads or manage ads for clients.

But that’s not the main reason you want it.

With Power Editor, you can be VERY selective about who you want to see your ads.

Have you ever wondered why your timeline shows certain ads that seem to be very relevant to you?  e.g.  if you are a female over 40, I bet you’ve seen at least one ad to do with “losing tummy fat” or some “miracle anti-wrinkle treatment”.

Choosing a targeted audience who you know are more likely to be interested in your products and services based on their other interests means that you get a much better return on your advertising dollar.

Possibly the greatest benefit of Power Editor is that you can create custom audiences from lists you already have – e.g.  your own newsletter list.  You can then create advertising campaigns which target those people specifically or with lookalikes – people like them.

Remember, before you embark on any advertising campaign, make sure you check Facebook’s guidelines to make sure you are compliant.

3.  Use Hashtags

If you use Twitter, you are probably already familiar with the hashtag #, (pound key for UK readers) which turns the word in front on the # into a clickable and searchable link e.g.  #marketing.

Facebook introduced hashtags earlier this year.   When you click on the link, you will see a list of posts that include the term.

Why do I want to use it?

The hashtag can help people who interested in a particularly topic to find your posts more easily. For example, if you are a wholefood advocate and you use the tag #wholefood in your posts, then when someone else writes about #wholefood and someone in their community, clicks that link, then they will be shown your post too!  Good way to get your posts in front of a wider community. You can also use the hashtag in your posts to help promote something like a #competition of #offer you are making. A lot of people still don’t use or even know about hashtags on Facebook so you might need to be patient with this strategy.

4.  Promotions

You no longer need to use a 3rd Party to run your promotions on Facebook!  Good news. According to Facebook:

Now, promotions may be administered on Page Timelines and in apps on Facebook. For example, businesses can now:

  • Collect entries by having users post on the Page or comment/like a Page post
  • Collect entries by having users message the Page
  • Utilize likes as a voting mechanism

Of course, you can still use a 3rd party if you’d prefer.

Why do I want to use it?

To build your community and brand and ultimately send people to your website to purchase your products/services. According to data collected by Tiger Pistol, the most successful campaigns are simple, run for about 4 weeks, have smaller prizes (attract more entries!) and if the prize is an Apple product or travel-related, then all the better!

You can see some examples of the types of promotions that Tiger Pistol have run for their clients.

Facebook-promotion-example-webjet | use Facebook

5.  Post-Great Content

Last but certainly not least, is to post great content to your page on a regular basis.  One of the most often asked questions I get is “how often should I post?”  My answer, depends on how important Facebook is to your business and how much business it brings you.  I’ve heard that it’s optimal to post five times per day but I don’t know many businesses that do.  If you can post 3 times a day, you are doing OK.  Remember, that only about 8% of your fans will ever see your post in their timeline so don’t feel bad about over-posting!

Mix up your posts – use photos and videos, ask questions, share relevant posts from other pages, share links from websites etc.  Bring your own business personality to your page by sharing photos of your brand, products, customers.

Use your Facebook Insights Data and Google Analytics to measure and track what’s working for you…and do more of it.

Why do I want to do it?

Too obvious to answer.

Here’s another tip for how to use your content that you might not have used yet.

Did you know that you can now embed public posts from Facebook directly into your website by adding a simple embed code like this?

This is great for sharing your popular content, customer reviews and comments on your blog.  Just go to the post, select the drop-down arrow and choose embed post.

EmbedPost | use Facebook

There you have it.  5 ways to use Facebook to get more fans and make more sales!  I’d love you to join Amica Digital Facebook page if you haven’t already.

Have you used any of these or would you like to share some other tips?  Please leave a comment below.

Can I ask you a favour?  If you enjoyed this article, would you please share it with others?  Thanks.

 

If you recognise that you would be better to outsource Facebook Ads for your business, take a look at Amica Digital Services. You can even mix and match based on the skills and tasks you need to outsource. If you’d like some training in some of these essential online business skills, please book a discovery call and we can tailor training to suit your needs.

 

*Editor’s Note: This post has been updated on August 2020 for accuracy.

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