Facebook likes are crucial metrics to consider when improving your social media campaign. Are you a social butterfly or a reclusive digital caterpillar?
If you answered the latter, it’s time to break out of that cocoon!
Social media is more important than ever in today’s digital climate.
Customers don’t just want to hear about the apparent benefits a company can offer them regarding new and exciting products or services – they also want to know what’s going on behind the scenes in that brand.
As of the second quarter of 2016, Facebook had around 1.71 billion active monthly users, so it emerged as one of the most popular options for companies to use in their social media strategies.
Unfortunately, simply running a social media page isn’t always enough to get the results you want – you also need to ensure you have what it takes to get ahead of the competition and make your chosen platform work for you. Hey, no one ever said that digital marketing wasn’t hard work.
At Traffic for Me, we’re all about generating traffic and know how valuable a social following can be for that very purpose. Many businesses need a real plan to jump into social media like Facebook advertising. While this might seem the most straightforward method, it’s also one of the dumbest options.
While passion and excitement can take you a long way in business, in the case of marketing, many companies find that their initial enthusiasm quickly wears off, and they’re left wondering how to improve their number of likes or how to get more people talking about their page. You don’t want to be a victim of getting too excited too fast.
Leads Come First
So where should your focus be in a social media campaign? On the cute pictures your friend shares of her cats or the recent clickbait articles floating around your feed?
Nope.
The metric you should be obsessing over to make the most of Facebook marketing is how many leads you’re getting. There are 4.5 billion likes generated daily, but only some of those likes lead to sales.
For those new to the terminology, a lead could be something as simple as an email address, a customer visiting your physical shop, or someone providing you with more information so that you can approach them for sales in the future. We’ll cover just some ways to convert those Facebook “likes” into leads that earn you success and cash.
1. They Need to Like You Before they Love You
No one will fall in love with your brand – unless they like the person behind it first.
At Traffic 4 Me, we give you everything you need to start getting people to fall in love with you through email marketing and brand awareness – but with social media marketing, you’re pretty much on your own. Sure, you can take your traffic to social media, but you need to engage them and interact with them there positively.
While Facebook likes aren’t the most crucial metric to consider when improving your social media campaign, that doesn’t mean they don’t have a part to play. Getting your followers to “like” your posts by engaging with them on a level they can connect to is a great way to gather new business.
After all, your customers must appreciate your company and trust your brand before they will be willing to give you their money. Take plenty of time to reach out to your customers and interact with them – that’s what social media is all about.
2. Set up Some Competitions
Who doesn’t love free stuff? I do, and all my friends do too! It’s just human nature.
Competitions, sweepstakes, or any other event that gives customers a chance to win something for “free” are still the best ways to generate interest in your company and get your audience to take action. There are even competition applications that you can use that will help you gather valuable information about your potential customers.
Just remember, as much as you might want to gather data, you must keep things simple on any entry forms, as the more questions you ask, the fewer entrants you’re likely to get. Try to create a delicate balance between getting to know your audience and scaring them away. No one likes to feel stalked by their favorite brands
3. Use Your Calls to Action
How do you get people to take action by calling them to it, of course?
AdRoll found that adding calls to action to your Facebook page increases the click-through rate by around 285%. For those who struggle with math, that’s what’s known in layman’s terms as “a hell of a lot.”
It’s typically a good idea to avoid drowning your Facebook audiences with sales posts, but using the correct language to encourage purchases is a good idea. Rather than creating an image brimming with text about your latest and greatest offer, try to use posts that show how great you are while giving something valuable back to the customer.
For example, pair your call to action with a statistic relevant to your product or service or a link to a blog post that might be useful for engaged customers.
4. Make the Most of Tabs
Facebook might not be the best solution for social interaction worldwide, but it’s one of the most popular. To get the most out of your Facebook experience, you must be willing to use all the available resources.
You have some lead generation techniques built into your website, such as a contact page or a subscription form where people can sign up to receive your monthly newsletter in exchange for a one-time-only discount code. Why not add the same features to your Facebook marketing measures?
Adding tabs to your Facebook page, such as the “Contact Us,” “Subscribe,” or “Book Now” tabs, can make it easier for you to capture new leads without having to send them off to your website. This option is typically more convenient for Facebook users who prefer to access more information without leaving their profile page or news feed.
5. Design Brand Ambassadors from Existing Customers
Do you want to know who can sell your products even better than you can? It’s your customers.
Your existing customers are likely to be your best salespeople. As with offline word-of-mouth marketing, Facebook allows people across the web to get together and endorse whatever you do or create.
Ensure your existing customers remain active on your page, ask them questions, and thank them for their feedback by giving them extra goodies such as voucher codes and valuable and unique content they can share with friends. The more you appeal to the people who already like your brand or service, the more likely they’ll do most of the work selling your product for you!
Since we’ll be doing the work getting you your traffic and your customers generating sales, you can do whatever you like with your business. Golf, anyone?
6. Use “Offers”
Recently, Facebook introduced a brand new tool for making lead generation simpler than ever. It’s known as the “Offers” segment. Marketers can use this opportunity to measure their ROI and generate fresh leads.
When creating your offer, remember to choose the “online only” option- regardless of whether you’re an online retailer or offline store – this will allow you to collect more information about your customer when sending them a voucher.
Even if you don’t already have your website – which, let’s face it, is unlikely – you can set up a Facebook custom page to collect information, allowing you to find out who is claiming your offer and giving you everything you need to get the relevant information you want to reach out to new customers or clients.
7. Keep Your Message Short and Sweet
Piles of information and long sales pages don’t mean something other than Facebook posts. To succeed on social media, you must know when to shut up.
Many companies assume that just because their Facebook messages aren’t restricted by a character limit – like on Twitter – they can make their posts as long and detailed as they like. Unfortunately, the truth is that your social media following is full of people with busy lives, so they don’t log onto their Facebook accounts to read paragraphs of dry information.
You’re far more likely to grab attention if you limit your message to between 100 and 250 characters.
8. Stand Out, but Stay Relevant
Today, Facebook is full of businesses competing for your ideal followers’ attention. In other words, it’s a crowded place to be.
If you want to get ahead of the competition, then you need to find a way to stand out from the crowd and prove that you’re different (in a good way). Look into what your competitors are doing and add your twist to become bigger and better. At the same time, remember to grab some relevant topics from what’s trending in your industry.
While posting random pieces of news that have nothing to do with your company is a bad idea, there’s nothing wrong with connecting your interests to popular topics on Facebook to help grab the attention of your target audience. You may attract more conversions or awareness if you seamlessly incorporate your company into a trending discussion.
It’s Time to Get a Social Life
As terrifying as social media might seem for the uninitiated, it’s here to stay. Email marketing campaigns still do far more for traffic than your average post on Twitter or Facebook. However, you can still boost your efforts by simultaneously getting involved from numerous angles. You can always buy traffic from Traffic 4 Me while focusing hard on your email game AND run a vibrant social campaign, too – in fact, most experts recommend it.
Email and social media can go hand in hand, from email links encouraging your customers to share what they’ve bought with friends to batch and blast campaigns that can be eradicated and reformed with the data you learn from social media!
