Facebook is the second largest website on the internet, and as such, having a Facebook account for your business is almost a mandatory requirement for any organization that wishes to expand its online presence. However, a Facebook account for your business is meaningless unless you're able to reach the types of individuals that need your products and services. There are many ways to do this, some are simple and others are a little more complex.
So let's take a look at seven ways to reach your target market on Facebook
1. If you haven't already, open a business Page
Most businesses already have a Facebook business Page, however, if you're only using your Facebook personal Page and don't have a business Page yet, don't worry, because creating a Facebook business Page is an easy thing to do.
First, login to Facebook, go to your homepage, and select "create page" in the left sidebar. You then need to select a category and fill out all the appropriate information. You can then upload your cover photo. All of the controls are very intuitive and user friendly. If you have any problems locating anything, just run a search and you will find what you need in a matter of seconds.
2. Engage in conversations
This is the probably the best way to get more interest in your company - by interacting with your potential local market customers, you can get their attention in a very personal way that allows for a higher conversion rate. It's also worth noting that by interacting with your customers in this manner, you increase the likelihood that they'll help spread the word about your business by telling their friends.
However, there's one major issue that you must face, and that time. Posting in all of the appropriate places and interacting with all of the people that may be interested in your business can be extremely time consuming. The obvious solution is to hire additional staff members to do this, however, this requires a lot of money.
In order to reduce costs and increase the number of people working for you, one option is to hire freelancers from upwork.com or freelancer.com at low rates. These employees don't come with the additional overheads of regular employees - just give them with all of the appropriate information and turn them loose.
3. Analyze your competition's Facebook accounts
In order to see what your competition is up to, you go to their Facebook account and see what they're posting. You can also use this information to reach more members of your target market - see what types of groups that your competitors belong to, so you can join the same communities and begin interacting there as well.
There are also lots of businesses that are not in competition with you but provide things that are relevant to your business. By analyzing these accounts, you can gain even more valuable insight about other accounts and groups.
4. Post regular updates
By posting regularly, you're constantly asserting your presence on Facebook in a way that's not intrusive and will expand your reach. If someone doesn't want your updates in their feed, they can always remove you, but if they do want updates, then you definitely need to make sure they get what they're after.
However, it's also important to not overdo it. You need to carefully estimate how many updates per day (or per week) is appropriate. Too many updates can be worse than not enough if they start to annoy people.
5. Offer exclusive deals
Another great marketing tactic is to offer your Facebook connections platform-only deals on your goods and services. You can offer percentage discounts on various items for a limited amount of time. You can also offer free information or products as incentives for them to purchase more or upgrade the free products they will receive.
The best thing about offering online deals to your Facebook customers is that there's a greater likelihood that they'll tell their Facebook connections about your great deals. If your deals are really good, this could go a long way. This is why you need to make sure that the specials you offer are substantial so there's a greater chance that a lot of people will share your updates in order to others of the about the amazing deals available.
6. Create a Facebook group
In order to make a group in Facebook, you need to do go through a few steps. First, you need to login to your account and then click on the "create group" icon located on the left sidebar. You then need to fill in all of the relevant details and choose an icon for your group. Once your group is created, invite all of your customers to become a part of your new community. This is also the perfect opportunity to offer special incentives for those who join.
7. Advertise on Facebook
There are two kinds of advertising on Facebook: ads that appear in the right sidebar and ads that appear in news feeds. The news feed ads are far more effective and have a much higher success rate. However, in order to run news feed ads, you must have a Facebook business page.
Facebook also has many options that allow you to target specific demographics. These options will be made available to you when you purchase your Facebook ads, so you need to have all of this information ready before you begin purchasing your advertisements.
Conclusion
Using all of the many tools on Facebook is rather easy. However, using these tools effectively can take time and effort to master. This is why you should seriously consider hiring several employees or freelancers to interact with your customers, gather information about your competition, and retrieve information about the various details of your target audience.
By using this powerful social media outlet, you can expand your online outreach exponentially, and in rather dramatic ways, if you do things right and remain persistent with your efforts.