Who doesn’t “Like” more likes?

Do you have a Facebook page for your organizing business? Are you finding it to be an effective marketing tool? Would you consider paying to advertise on Facebook? Today’s article by Joanna Hughes explains the many tools available to help you make the most of your Facebook page.

Facebook reported a whopping 1.15 billion active users as of June 2013; of these, 699 million checked into the social networking site daily. These staggering numbers speak for themselves: if you aren’t using Facebook for your business, you are missing a massive opportunity to transform Facebook users into customers.

Businesses are built on relationships, and Facebook provides nearly infinite possibilities for enhancing pre-existing relationships while fostering new ones. Nevertheless, while Facebook’s user-friendly platform can help companies establish a strong Facebook presence, and while most businesses now have Facebook pages, few realize the full potential of social media as part of their corporate strategies to capture new customers and drive sales.

Facebook Ads–“Likes” and Beyond

Facebook Ads are an effective way to inform customers about products and services. Facebook reports that people who “Like” a business page spend twice as much money on that company’s services as those without a Facebook connection. Setting up a Facebook Ad is simple, and includes a variety of options–from the ability to increase “Likes” to promoting posts, increasing event attendance, and more. Furthermore, with a basic Facebook Ad, a company can target its ideal audience based on basic demographic data, such as age, gender, and location.

Generating a Facebook Ad is only a small part of what Facebook can do for your business. Through Facebook’s sophisticated marketing tools, businesses can further optimize the impact of their advertising.

Power Editor, for example, lets users create different versions of an ad from a single example–a great way to run multiple campaigns focused on variations in target markets. It is also possible to create custom audiences based on corporate sales data in order to most appropriately engage a specific audience. These tools are particularly beneficial to businesses with large, diverse customer databases.

Facebook Exchange, meanwhile, aggregates users’ online behavior in order to maximize the value of a company’s advertising. This innovative analytic targets potential customers who have recently expressed interest online in similar products or services.

It’s not enough, however, to advertise your business on Facebook; you also need to have increased website visibility. Facebook Platform is designed to do exactly that. Companies can find new customers, register them quickly as website members, and offer social plugins, such as “Like” and “Share” buttons.

Open Graph is an increasingly popular tool which lets users share a compelling “story” on Facebook: we’ve all been invited to cheer on friends during a walk or run; this is the Nike+ mobile app at work in conjunction with Open Graph.

The power of social media is in your hands.

Making (Dollars and) Sense of it All

All of these tools are meaningless without tracking and measuring technology. Facebook provides several mechanisms through which businesses can track results and receive critical insight into user connections. Ads Manager lets businesses compare results against previously established goals; these analytics can help a company learn more about who is interacting with its page and in what way, as well as to determine which ads are effective, and which need to be refocused or eliminated.

The Ads Manager also contains a handy Conversion Tracking tool, which lets companies measure how Facebook Ads translate to website results. Conversations are reported directly back to the Ads Manager so high value actions can be assessed.

Whether your business provides organization services, or is in an entirely different industry, the potential impact of social networking in the modern business world remains the same. By utilizing the tools Facebook puts–literally–at your fingertips, you can elevate your company’s presence and performance to an entirely new level.

Images:

1. Courtesy of Master isolated images at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
2. Courtesy of tungphoto at FreeDigitalPhotos.net