Since opening to the general public on September 16, 2006, Facebook has grown to be the most popular social networking site with over 600 million active users. Many businesses have already learned to advertise on Facebook and capitalize on its user-base, however there are still quite a few small businesses that don’t take advantage of social media marketing tools. This is because it isn’t as simple as just putting up a Facebook page and waiting for users to start browsing. It requires an understanding of the tools that are available to advertise on Facebook and a bit of careful planning to effectively target your desired demographics.
Understanding the Tools to Help You Advertise on Facebook
With more and more businesses abandoning traditional marketing techniques or searching for ways to augment their current marketing strategies, marketing through social networking sites is becoming even more popular. Of all the social networks, Facebook is the largest of them with over 600 million active users. Businesses are understandably trying to capitalize on its popularity and advertise on Facebook so that they can take advantage of this huge user base. One can advertise on Facebook with a minimal time investment, sometimes even for free, and be able to target specific customer demographics or even let the users themselves propagate information about your business. There are quite a few tools to help you advertise on Facebook, and the social networking site also makes it easy for businesses to target desired demographics by allowing them to edit specific parameters that can fine tune the kind of audience that gets to see the content when they advertise on Facebook. Two of the best known tools that businesses use to advertise on Facebook that are free are Facebook Pages and Facebook Groups. Social ads are ads that can be fine tuned to reach specific demographics. There are also a number of Facebook applications that can be used to advertise on Facebook and even perform simple business functions through the social networking site.
Using Facebook Pages to Advertise on Facebook for Free
Facebook provides some free yet comprehensive tools that allow you to advertise on Facebook and reach out to your potential and existing customers. Facebook pages are similar to ordinary user pages except these are specifically for businesses, artists, bands, and other public figures to communicate information as posts on their page wall. When creating a page to advertise on Facebook, you will need to decide what you are promoting whether it is a company, brand, product, artist, or any other figure. as well as the kind of information that makes up the profile. One important thing that you should also do when creating a page is to properly categorize your page to effectively advertise on Facebook and appeal to the interests of your customers. This is because Facebook automatically suggests pages to users according to their interests. Users who visit your page can subscribe to your page by “liking” it or by “becoming a fan”. This is another way to advertise on Facebook and reach out to even more customers because users who like your page receive news updates that can consist of text, images and videos. Since these posts are visible on the user’s wall, their friends can also see these posts and subscribe through them.
Targeted Marketing Through Social Ads
Another effective way to advertise on Facebook is through paid social ads. Social ads can be specifically tailored to target preferred demographics by editing the options under age group, educational status, relationship status, political views, and gender. You’ll also be able to tailor social ads even further as you advertise on Facebook by entering related keywords and target related traffic. Not only are social ads effective when used to advertise on Facebook, they are also cost-effective for small businesses looking to advertise on a budget. There are two ways that you can pay for social ads: pay-per-click and pay-per-view. While they might sound similar, they differ slightly in that pay-per-click charges you based on the number of clicks of your ad, while pay-per-view charges on the number of times that the ad is displayed to a user when you advertise on Facebook.
Using Applications as Tools When you Advertise on Facebook
These aren’t the office productivity applications that you are already installed on your computer, but the Facebook applications that come in the thousands that can help you advertise on Facebook. While most of them are for entertainment purposes, some of them can be quite functional and can be used as effective tools when you advertise on Facebook. Productivity applications can be hard to find though, and it may take a while for you to sift through the multitude of apps that are out there, but there are great examples like Storefront Social that allow you to create your very own e-commerce section within your Facebook Page when you advertise on Facebook. Aside from creating a storefront from scratch, it also allows you to import products from one of your existing e-commerce sites. The Poll application is another Facebook app that you can use to add variety and interactivity to your page that you use to advertise on Facebook. It does exactly as its name suggests, but also adds a level of customization by letting you add pictures, videos and links as you advertise on Facebook.
Reasons Why Some Businesses are Still Hesitant to Advertise on Facebook
While Facebook is undoubtedly becoming the preferred marketing solution of most businesses, some are still hesitant to advertise on Facebook because of a lack of familiarity with many of the tools. Businesses like restaurants and boutique clothing stores still prefer to rely on tried-and-true marketing methods like coupons and direct mail than advertise on Facebook. However even those traditional methods are in decline, and more modern marketing methods such as search marketing and being able to advertise on Facebook are now on the rise. Online marketers have also become more aggressive in targeting small businesses to advertise on Facebook and are sometimes said to get in touch with some businesses at least once every week.