As of OCT-DEC 2017 Facebook had 2.2 BILLION Monthly Active Users (source). With that many people in one place, it’s no surprise that every business owners wants to know how to use Facebook for business.
(That is not a typo, the number is 2.2 billion).
Do you think you could find some customers amongst that bunch?
Think about that; 2.2 billion. Count to 100,000 and then multiply THAT by 10! Now you’re at 1 million.
But then you need just over 2,000 of THEM millions!
Even if we are talking about just the 15million or so Facebook users in Australia. Is 15,000,000 enough for you to build your business to where you want it to be?
Of course.
This is why it’s important for Aussie business owners to learn how to use Facebook. Your customers are there, you just need to get them in the door.
Facebook for business, is different then Google for business. And it’s different than the Yellow Pages for business.
Facebook and Social Media in general, are built for your customers. They are not built for you to target your customers. (however the ability to do that is a nice side benefit).
No matter how well your business does on radio, or in print publications you’ll need to re-skill and learn how to use Facebook and Facebook Ads for your business.
Facebook gives businesses an opportunity to connect with their customers.
If you want to utilise the strength of Facebook to market your business, connecting with your customers is going to be a fundamental basis for everything you do.
There are a number of ways to connect and therefore use facebook for business, and we’ll get to that in a moment.
Social interactions are what drives Facebook. Even if it is something as small as giving someone a thumbs up (“a LIKE”), or if you’re joining in a healthy debate about something related to your industry.
It’s all social.
And being social needs to be the foundation of what you’re doing, but not always.
You are allowed to sell to your customers on Facebook (of course), and some of your Facebook fans/followers will welcome being sold to. Your aim will be to have as many people as possible welcome your products.
To achieve this, be social first.
Therefore, How Do You Use Facebook For Business?
In a nutshell it’s like this:
- Be social.
- Connect with strangers who fit your customers demographic.
- Communicate with them (not sell to them).
- Offer advice, help, opinions and your stories. All the things that happen naturally on Facebook (that’s a BIG CLUE right there).
- By doing the above, strangers will start to LIKE your business page and / or follow you.
- Offer people who you’ve connected with, what’s known as ‘Mafia Offers’, as in: “Offers they can’t refuse” (that’s a line from the Godfather movie, if you didn’t get that). Your Mafia Offers might be:
- Free samples
- Buy 1, Get 1 Free.
- 100% OFF For New Customers
- etc.
- Absolute good great deals where people feel like they just HAVE TO take advantage of that.
- When strangers become customers, continue to nurture and build the relationship your new customers have with your business.
Of course there are all the other little things like setting up your Business page, adding your businesses contact details, blah blah blah. But I guess that YOU did not come to this page to be told that.
You’re more focused on the strategy and the principles. Am I right?
That’s what I prefer to focus on also.
If you’re trying to “Figure out facebook”, or if you’re trying to learn how to “advertise well on Facebook”, you are working on two different things. (and that’s fine).
Figuring Out Facebook
Number one is just about logging into Facebook, setting up a Business page. These are the mechanics of how Facebook works. Simply just using it as a user, and also a setting up a different business profile if you’re a business.
(by the way, if you’re serious about Facebook for your business, be sure to set up your Business Facebook account via https://business.facebook.com
2. Learning to Advertise Well on Facebook
In number two we’re now talking about the 100+ year old principles and skills of marketing and positioning a product or service for sale. This is the more important of the two.
Too many business owners assume they are done with the hard work after figuring out #1 above, however, they are probably closer to being just 4% of the way.
Learning how to advertise well on Facebook is similar to learning how to advertise well anywhere. And that’s the good news.
Using Facebook for business marketing just puts you as the business owner in a different starting spot.
If you’re a dentist in Melbourne CBD, and your client goes to google.com.au and searches for “dentists in Melbourne”, this customer is:
a) in need of a dentist.
b) ready to pay today.
Therefore on Google your Ad can have the tone of “come and be my client today”.
However, Facebook Ads is Different.
People are not on Facebook hoping to find a Dentist in their local area.
Therefore, if you’re a dentist in Melbourne CBD and you’re running a Facebook Ads campaign with the same tone and message of “come and be my client today”, you’re hoping to invent tooth pain in the 99.5% of people who don’t have tooth pain right now.
If they are searching on Google for a Dentist, there is a 90% chance THEY DO need a Dentist. Because THEY searched for it.
But they are not on Facebook because they have tooth pain.
Let that sink in for a moment, read that again if you didn’t just get a ‘ah-ha’ moment.
(not that I’m so smart, but I know that’s the very simplistic difference you need to get).
Therefore, you’d be better on Facebook to create a connection with people before they needed your services. So that when you do, they exactly who to call.
We’ve now come full circle and are back to utilising Facebook on what it’s actually for. That is to be social.
If you are a Dentist in Melbourne CBD, how could you be social and make a connection with people who live within travelling distance to your clinic?
The possibilities are near endless, but I encourage you to think it through and come up with a 3-5 solid ideas. The only way to know what works best is to test each of them.
Dedicate $25 to each idea for three days and see which idea reaches the most people. You can then choose to pause the losers and keep the winner/s.
Here’s The Trick for Facebook
Everyone who “engages” with your “being social ads”, can be put into a unique group. Using the Facebooks Custom Audiences tool (more info on that here), you can set up a new Custom Audience so you can target ONLY these people later on, with a second campaign.
When you set up a Custom Audience, you can tell Facebook:
- Segment and create a second group/list of people.
- Only add people who have ‘engaged with’ my Facebook Ad page.
- (this includes people who have liked, watched, read, shared, etc, your “being social” campaigns that we mentioned above.
- Save them and call them “Whatever” (whatever you want to, so that you’ll remember who that list of people are).
- They’ll be saved and you can target these people again when you show a second type of ad.
There are several different types of Custom Audiences you can set up, I go over the key ones here.
Now you have a growing list of people how know you. They’ve interacted with your Facebook business page in some way.
This gives you the opportunity to move the relationship along another step with these people. This is where you can introduce your Mafia Offers (mentioned above).
A Mafia Offer is a good step between:
a) Knowing you or your business. and;
c) Becoming your regular, full paying client/customer.
( Step “B” is in-between and is accepting your Mafia Offer.)
When you can tick off everything we have just mentioned above, you will now have a ever growing list of people who know you and customers. All of whom have been generated from Facebook.
When you have these customers, I encourage you to keep in contact with them and continue to grow your business relationship with them OUTSIDE of Facebook too. Snail mail, emails, SMS, phone, etc.
Considering what business you’re in, and I do think that a Dentist is a good example of when it’s probably a good idea to keep the “getting to know people” and the “managing existing clients” somewhat separated.
I trust you have enjoyed this post. It’s just one post, that touches on one topic. But if you’ve read it you’re now one more step ahead of your competitors who will run an ad on Facebook saying ” HIRE ME! and BUY MY THINGS! ”
To get three steps ahead of your competitors I have a FREE book that you can order here: https://craigmarty.com/free-book-on-facebook-ads .
It’s all about the How to Get Customers on Facebook. It’s more of a beginners guide, than what is an advanced guide.
So if you haven’t yet got several new customers every day coming in from Facebook, you should consider getting a FREE copy of my book here while they are still free: https://craigmarty.com/free-book-on-facebook-ads
Enjoy.
Craig
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