The Social Media Marketer

Need Social Media Help? 5 Tips for the Facebook Newbie

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More than five million people can't be wrong, can they?

That's how many accounts there are on Facebook these days, and it keeps growing. While many people use it to catch up with their old friends, to gossip, flirt or even stalk old loved ones, countless businesses have also discovered that having a Facebook account is a vital part of their social media marketing efforts.

That being said, many of these businesses are finding that they need a little social media help.  Where to start?  What to do?  Well, the first place you might want to try is Facebook. That's where thousands of potential customers hang out, and joining Facebook is becoming a vital part of any social media marketing campaign.

After all, who can pass up a chance at potentially reaching millions of customers? And while Facebook does sell advertising that will pop up on the sides of members' pages, actual membership is free.

There are different types of pages on Facebook. There are the profile pages which people use as their personal pages, and fan pages, which can be set up for a cause, a business – just about anything.

If you're using Facebook to get some social media help for your business, you really should consider creating a fan page, which allows for a lot more functionality than a personal page does.

You can add custom functions to your page to attract potential customers. Fan pages also allow people to “like” your page without you having to approve them individually. This will save you, or whoever is giving you social media help, an incredible amount of time once your fan page takes off.

And once you've made that page, here's some social media help to get you on your way:

• Include some catchy tags in your profile that will help potential customers find you. For example, let's say you are working on social media help for a veterinarian from Pittsburgh, Pa. If you build a profile that includes those words, and someone runs a search for a veterinarian from Pittsburgh, they'll be more likely to find you. A side benefit – many people's Facebook profiles also show up high in Google searches. Also, don't forget to use your real name in your profile. That also makes it easier to be found.
• Make sure your page is kept up to date and current. Yes, you need to add status updates on a daily basis so your customers know what you're doing. You also need to allow your page's visitors to comment on those updates.
• Keep close control over your page and its contents. If you don't have time to do this yourself, hire someone to provide you with some social media help on Facebook. If you don't keep control of your page, it will sooner or later get hit by one of those spammers who get paid a couple cents a pop to troll Facebook pages and post their nonsense on it. There is no excuse for allowing that stuff to be on your page – it will just alienate your customers.
• Now and then, if you have a product you want to make public, offer some freebies if you can afford it. For example, Yoplait Yogurt offered a coupon for a free cup of their yogurt to everyone who clicked the like button on their Facebook fan page. They got thousands of clicks. Everybody likes a little gift now and then, and if you can set up your Facebook page freebie link to take the customer back to your own website, you've brought back some much-needed traffic.
• Don't forget to let people know you're on Facebook. Include a link to your page on your blog, and don't forget about your paid advertising. We've all seen those “like us on Facebook” notices in advertising – don't forget about yours.

And while you're working on creating that fan page, don't forget-- if you have a blog or website, include a Facebook widget somewhere so that your site's visitors can click the 'like' button. It looks great when a website to have the statement "1,000 people like us on Facebook." There's nothing like peer pressure to bring in more fans!

Don't forget – a website with the kind of power Facebook has is nothing to overlook when you are building your social media marketing platform.

Just because a lot of young people use Facebook, that doesn't mean it's kids' stuff!