Social media is useful for almost every type of business. Cafes, retail stores, and even professional services can build their online reputation and increase trust. By taking advantage of social media, businesses can make themselves more accessible, more personable, and maintain long term connections.
Facebook is the most popular social networking website on the internet, and often the first site that comes to mind when people mention social media. Establishing your business presence on facebook requires an ongoing effort, but can have some great rewards if done well.
While creating a facebook page is easy enough, growing your fan base can be tricky if you’ve entered social media for the first time. Obviously a large fan base is great for getting your message out, but is also increases trust and credibility in your business for new potential customers.
Below are my seven tips to help promote your facebook page and grow your fan base,
1. Leverage Existing Relationships
The first step in growing your facebook fan base should be using existing relationships. Identify contacts from your personal profile that are business contacts and invite them to become fans of your business. You can also do the same with family and friends.
2. Add a Facebook Link to Your Website
Include a link to your facebook page from your website, blog and other business websites. It may also help if you give customers an incentive to join (special discounts, coupon codes etc.) Adding the link in the header or top of your website is a good idea as it makes the link accessible across all pages on your website.
3. Include Facebook Links in Email Communications
Whether you’re sending out a monthly newsletter or customer service email, including a link to your facebook page in email communications is another good idea. For professional emails, you may want to consider placing this link in your email signature.
4. Promote Your Page in Other Social Networks
Interlinking all of your social media profiles is also a good idea. LinkedIn is perfect for cross promotion as it’s a social network already focused around business relationships. Also be sure to include links on your Twitter and Google plus accounts (if you have them).
5. Build a Custom Facebook Landing Page
You may have seen that some facebook pages use a custom landing tab which introduces new visitors to the business and encourages them to like the page. While building a custom landing page is slightly more involved, it will have a positive impact on converting new visitors to fans. Mashable has a great guide on how to `build a custom page.
6. Run a Competition or Giveaway
If you’re willing to grow your fan base at any cost, you may also want to consider running a free competition or giveaway. Just make sure that the customer must “like” your fan page to be eligible and watch the numbers grow.
7. Consider Facebook Promotion Packages
If you don’t have the time to grow fan numbers yourself, you can also explore facebook promotion packages as another option. Third party promotion services are often very affordable and can help to grow your fan base while you focus on running your business.
