When starting out, it may have seem like an easy task to create a solid fan base via Facebook marketing. Everyone's on Facebook these days, right? Surely there's an audience waiting to jump on and Like our page and keep themselves updated through our posts? Right? Unfortunately, it just isn't that easy.
It goes without saying that not all Facebook Pages take off. The ones that do are targeted, strategic and avoiding making any of these common errors - you should avoid them too.
1. Monologue Marketing
Since social media is all about interaction and communication - being 'social' - there's no reason to make your fan Page all "broadcast". In order to make your brand come alive, not only do you need your fans to show interest in you, you need to show interest in them and what they have to say.
2. Not Going through Facebook's Terms
Facebook has its own set of rules for everything - this includes how you promote your brand on Facebook. When creating your Facebook company Page, you're required to agree to Facebook's page terms which have an extensive list of rules on promotions, offers, and Page content that need to be thoroughly understood before you begin promoting.
3. Not Investing Enough Time
Your Facebook Page isn't going to run on its own, that's a given. Successful Facebook marketing entails serious commitment of time, effort, and attention.
4. Being Boring
Even if you do spend enough time creating content for your Page, it won't necessarily get a bucket load of Likes within a week. Your content should be unique and engaging with a variety of posts to mix it up (photos, videos, tags, campaigns, etc).
5. Not Using Analytics
Measuring your marketing success is crucial to ensure that you're giving your Facebook Page due diligence. Any effective form of marketing requires measurement. For Facebook Pages, this translates to analytics based on traffic, conversion/sales, posts, comments, likes, PTA (people talking about this), response time, etc.
6. No Marketing Strategy
Marketing without a strategy is like starting a business without a plan. What do you intend to achieve with Facebook marketing? How many "fans" are you looking forward to enticing and to fulfill which company goal? How do you plan to entice those fans? Without goals, strategies, and tactics in mind, you're on track to achieving less-than optimal results.
7. Not Making an Effort to Learn Facebook
Facebook's tools and mechanisms may be more comprehensive than you think - it isn't until you have entirely explored the medium and the options available to you that you can fully understand what's possible. Some SBO's make the mistake of not even trying to get into the technicalities, uses, or features of the network (i.e. exploring Facebook Insights).
8. Making it all about Sales
Since you're marketing, you'll obviously have a few promotions and pitches you want to make on your page. However, since this is Facebook (not entirely advertising) your Page shouldn't be all about promotions. Provide more 'value' to your Page by relaying information, interacting with fans, answering queries, and offering how to's.
9. Using the Same Posts as Other Social media
Every social media channel has its own style of communication. A 140 character post that makes perfect sense on Twitter may not make any sense at all on Facebook. Similarly, the tags you use may differ (@ or #). Don't give your fans a reason to stop following you on one platform because they're already following you another which has essentially the same stuff.
10. No Attention to Design
Humans are visual, and social media is VERY visual. Other than your posts, your Facebook Page, tabs, and other images should be well-thought out in terms of design. With an information overload, you can't expect your leads to Like or sign up on a page that doesn't "catch the eye".