Having a Facebook page for your business is a great way to get started – why? Facebook currently has a page rank of 2 according to Alexa – that’s just behind Google. What this means is that your Facebook page will get indexed faster by Google, thus improving your ability to get people to your Facebook page.
Once you’ve created a Facebook page though I’m sure many of you are expecting traffic to just start flowing in automatically. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Here are 5 ways to promote your Facebook page and drive Facebook traffic.
#1: Invite your friends
The most convenient way to increase traffic to your Facebook page is to simply tell your friends. To make it easier, I recommend setting up a list – call it “Facebook page invitations” or something easy to remember. Once you’ve done this, begin adding friends to this list.
Once you have your list setup to invite friends from a Facebook list you have created, visit your Facebook page and click “suggest to friends” and begin typing the name of the list you created. This will invite just those individuals in that list.
Remember, not everyone checks Facebook everyday, so it may take time to build up the number of likes on your page. As you make more friends, remember to add them to the list you created. and to continue inviting that list.
Note: If someone that is in the list you are inviting has a pending invitation, they will be grayed out meaning you cannot invite them until they like your page or a certain amount of time passes.
#2: Use Facebook search to find people
Once you have exhausted inviting your friends to your Facebook page, I suggest branching out to help grow your network. Facebook search is a great way to find new prospects. What most users don’t know though is that you can see people outside of your network – simply by doing a search and looking under “posts by everyone.”
If I were cupcake vendor, here is a screenshot of a search I might perform for “cupcakes” which I then set to show “posts by everyone.” If I see someone that seems like a good prospect, I then message them, saying something like “I saw your recent comment on needing some cupcakes for a birthday party. My business makes cupcakes – we specialize in birthdays and special events. Let me know if we can help you out (insert link to your Facebook page).
#3: Facebook Social Ads
Facebook ads are a convenient way to reach out to the 500 million plus users who are on the site. What is great about Facebook Ads is that you can set daily spending amounts – you don’t need to have a big budget. Amounts can range from $10 per day to $25 and up. You pick the keywords and the amount.
For some users, they will want to advertise everyday. Others will advertise for a few weeks and then stop for a brief period. It really depends on your budget and if you are seeing results.
One thing to remember, if something isn’t working, take the time to readjust your plan. Maybe it’s the keyword you are using. Rather than throw money away, try different things to see what works for your business.
#4: Connect your Facebook page to Twitter
Short on time but still want to maximize exposure of your Facebook page? Consider connecting your Facebook page to your Twitter account. What this means is that anytime you publish updates to your Facebook page (note: this only works for Facebook pages and not for profiles), your Twitter account will also be updated.
This is a great tool to use to save you time with using social media. You can also select which items on your Facebook page get published to your Twitter account as well
Note: this is not the only application that does this, just the most convenient one built-in to Facebook.
To connect the two accounts, click here.
#5: Facebook Social Plugins
Once you’ve promoted your page to your friends and through Twitter, the last step is to add various Facebook Social Plugins to your website. This is important so that you maintain a consistent branding effort and to continue to drive interest. Think about it – if you had a business and were not promoting it on your main source of traffic – your website — would you expect to grow the number of fans that liked your page?
I recommend adding an activity box along with a Facebook like button to your site – there are a number of other alternatives that are equally good for your site as well. Think about the content your site offers and if this could be something users could and would want to share.
Remember, choose the ones that will work for YOUR site.
Did I leave anything off? What other ways are you seeing success with in promoting your Facebook page? Leave me a comment.