6 FACEBOOK MARKETING TIPS YOU PROBABLY MISSED!

Social Media Marketing is in full buzz these days. Right from top brands to small businesses are using this “power-tool” in one way or another. Campaigns are not always a win-win situation. Some are easy to execute and can create an uproar by generating a massive return on investment (the #BeatCancer holds the Guinness World Record for the “Most Widespread Social Network Message with 209,771 unique mentions. ” The campaign earned over $70,000 for various charities). And campaigns if not designed and effectuated properly, can fail horribly (remember General Motor‘s SUV “create your own advert” Viral Marketing Campaign wherein the environmentalists created negative ads!)

Let us see what some of the most popular and successful facebook campaign marketing tips are (of course, not the traditional ones we all already know).

VIDEO vs IMAGES :

Here, we are not saying which one is more superior but which one is more effective. Images will have its own place on the social network, but let us face the fact- videos have a tendency to viral and are more appealing. So this is the first hottest tip. Share videos and not just still images. Let us elaborate. If somebody likes your service or product page, a story will be displayed on facebook with a description of the service or product with an image of the same.

How about making it more appealing by adding a video? So, now if somebody likes a service or product page, it will show a video of that product or service. For instance, the video can promote the product or service or just show a user’s review of it. How to do it? Just use the following meta tags to your existing Facebook Open Graph meta data:

<meta property=”og:image” content=”image url” />
<meta property=”og:video” content=”video url” />
(if your video is on YouTube, the link should entered as follows: http://www.youtube.com/v/the-ID-of-your -video. The ID of your video appears in its original URL right after “watch?v=”)
<meta property=”og:video:type” content=”application/x-shockwave-flash” />
<meta property=”og:video:width” content=”width of your video” />
<meta property=”og:video:height” content=”height of your video” />

MOVE OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE :

When you have a fan page for your business, you would want everything bright and good for it. So you will consider posting in business hours. But that’s partially true. Ever considered posting out of this zone? If not, try now. Experiment! You might be missing out on a huge portion of your fans.

Start by experimenting in early morning periods (4 am-7 am ET), late evenings (10 pm-12 am ET) and on weekends. But don’t just do it once and stop. Keep tracking what type of responses you get. So for instance, if you post twice a week, do once in the traditional business hours and the other out of it.

In a recent study by Yesmail, and also Buddy Media it was revealed that “campaigns deployed between 10 pm-12 am ET were an engagement goldmine. Based on volume, however, this timeslot was the least utilized for deployment.” And, “The most popular time of day to deploy campaigns was between 11 am-1 pm ET, while paradoxically, this timeslot was in the bottom 30% in terms of engagement.”

So, start by experimenting in early morning periods (4 am-7 am ET), late evenings (10 pm-12 am ET) and on weekends. But don’t just do it once and stop. Keep tracking what type of responses you get. So for instance, if you post twice a week, do once in the traditional business hours and the other out of it.

But while posting keep in mind the location and global time zones where your fans reside.

TALK LIKE YOUR AUDIENCE:

While interacting with your audience, talk as if you are one of them- excited and curious to know what’s new. Do not behave like a typical advertiser. Avoid using very formal words like “Hello” and “Goodbye”. This will do nothing but make audience loose interest as they might find it boring. Instead, words such as “awesome” are highly appreciated. Also slangs, memes and trolls sell like hot cakes. Look at this interesting meme created by Channel [v] which got a decent engagement.

ASK YOUR FANS FOR PRODUCT IDEAS AND INPUTS :

Planning to launch a new product? Other than using traditional posts to engage your fans, try something new. Involve your fans by asking them for ideas and inputs. You can also create a sense a urgency by saying that you are making the final decision shortly. This will make them give their inputs quickly. Also, when you finally decide to launch it, thank your fans for their inputs and ideas and share what you decided on.

Starbucks takes the cake here. It came up with a business development idea which was truly a crowd-puller. Fans and audience were just asked to give new ideas for a new product or service they would want Starbucks to start. This not only gave them free business ideas but also helped a lot in brand awareness and customer engagement. And the feeling of your idea actually been considered is priceless!

WANT MORE FANS? RUN MORE CONTESTS AND …

We are sure many of you would have faced a question like “how do I get more fans ?” You being a social media manager, would know that there are a lot many ways to get more and more fans. It majorly depends on the kind of audience you have and how you manage them (the business page, per say).

However “Facebook Contests” is one such way to really increase your fans. And it works!

Its conversational and interactive. If you allow your fans to ‘share’ the contest, then their friends can join in too. This also allows to you to collect your fans’ email address that can really help you facebook marketing.

Also there are many third-party apps that make these contests really simple. And most importantly, they are in accordance with Facebook’s Promotion Guidelines. Also there is a contest app that allows you to choose your own budget for these contests. Prices for contest apps range from free to five figures a month.

Just as not every business is the same, the kind of audience it will have will also differ. Similarly, it’s not important that every Facebook contest is run in the same way. You have to test your contests (such as photo/video contests) , before inviting your audience, to see which is best suited for them.

For instance, “Check-in the Recycling bin.” doesn’t it sound cool? “The Recycling King” campaign, started by Coca Cola group with the help of Facebook Places to increase awareness for recycling plastic bottles, is one of the biggest and most successful facebook campaign ever. They added over 10,000 recycle bins location in Israel to the Facebook Places system. This made finding recycling bin easier, no matter where you were in Israel. Thousands of people participated by checking in, uploading photos and sharing it with their friends. The most active participant was crowned “The Recycling King” . This campaign witnessed more than 26,000 pictures and 250,000 checkins.

Posting on Facebook never looked so simple. Now, Facebook allows page admins to schedule a post to be that can be published at a later time. Only third-party publishing platforms could make use of this initially, but now its open to all page admins.

Using this tool ensures that your messages are delivered to your audience in time, especially when you have targeted a particular location. You can also schedule multiple messages in advance to say time. This tool is FREE and there is no mention of third-party tools below the post.

Marketing on Facebook is not only about these couple of tips. It goes beyond this. The marketing industry is ever-evolving and one has to use the hit-and-trial method. Take risks, be innovative and treat your fans well. Offer incentives and keep making your business interesting by bringing in new ideas. Do let us know how your Facebook marketing journey has been so far. And feel free to share your success secrets!