Social Media Mgr

If you are a small business owner and you are looking to use Facebook to find new customers,then I say, good for you!
However I will caution you at the same time. Marketing your small business on Facebook can be hugely successful if done right. For instance, Harvard Business Review did  *case study on Dessert Gallery (DG), a popular Houston-based bakery and café chain. The findings were that as DG engaged their customers on Facebook, those fans visited the cafe 20% more often than non fans, and were also more likely to recommend them to their friends.
Not bad for free advertising.
There are some do’s and don’t with Facebook marketing and I will list the Top 3 Rules to get you going.
1) Start Off Slowly
You can actually get your account shut down if you violate this rule. There are companies that offer to add friends for you which sounds good, but Facebook doesn’t like that. What you will want to do is start adding selected people from high profile people in your niche.
For instance, if you have a website offering business coaching, then look for clubs where business owners are spending time. You can do a search in Facebook looking for fan pages that cater to business owners like “Forbes” or “Business Development”. Then you would “like” those pages and add people who subscribe to that page.
This process works in any market and will bring your site targeted traffic.
2) Follow the “Oprah Marketing Method”
Oprah is a perfect example of how when you educate your audience, they will like you, trust you and buy what ever you recommend.
You want to offer valuable content related to your market. The more you help them, educate them, the more you position yourself as the trusted expert in your field. Do this on a consistent basis and you’ll watch your sales increase.
3) Respond Quickly
If you consistently sent out messages of value, you will get questions from your target market, usually before they buy. This is like a little test. If you don’t treat them with care before they buy, they won’t trust you enough to buy from you.
Sign up for social monitoring tools like hootsuite.com. It’s free and it will really help you manage all the feedback you get in one centralized location.
Facebook is huge. Your future customers are on there, so go get ‘em!
Happy Marketng!
Arlina Allen
* Resource: Harvard Business Review, http://hbr.org/2010/03/one-cafe-chains-facebook-experiment/ar/1