Using Facebook as part of the Company’s Marketing Strategy

Facebook has become the most popular Social Media around the world and the one with the highest levels of engagement from all of the others. Smith and Maeve (2013) indicate that “63% of Facebook users visit the site at least once a day”, but what it really matters to them when logging in in Facebook is what companies need to keep the eye on if they want to reach these people.

Nowadays, not only the younger ones are using this platform, but people from all ages, from all parts of the world, from both genders and also from different social levels use Facebook as their communication tool to the world (Smith, 2013)  and is in this particular element, “communication”,  where companies need to focus when building their marketing strategy because regardless of its size, of its type, of its career in the market, Facebook is a must have within the marketing strategy for all companies (Angelova, 2013), and as mentioned by Randy Duermyer (2013) “Facebook advertising delivers your ads to the most targeted market your money can buy”, so why not use it in the right way.

However, when starting to use Facebook as part of the Marketing Strategy for the company, a couple of things should be on mind so all the time and effort put into it, really pays off:

ü  Understanding the Facebook’s Platform

ü  Create SMART objectives

ü  Evaluating the Results

By understanding how Facebook’s Platform really works from the business perspective, companies should be able to manage it in a proper way to reach their SMART objectives and develop a successfully Business Marketing Strategy using different tactics trough Facebook and finally, evaluating the results will help to analyze what really worked and what it didn’t, especially for companies that are just starting to use this tool.

Understanding the Facebook’s Platform:

Facebook sounds like a very easy tool for everyone, but when it becomes part of the Business Marketing Strategy then the company needs to understand how it really works for the business and not for the regular users (Lachance, 2013).

ü  Who goes into Facebook: Understanding which of the people that use this platform would be targeted by your company is the first thing to do. It's very important to remember that is not about reaching everyone that is on Facebook, but attracting the ones who are worth to your business, meaning, the Buyer Persona. Once you have identify your target market within Facebook, then you can deliver your products and services to them in the way they want to be reached, this means, do not try to sell your product at once, it’s very important to focus that people that go to Facebook do not use it to shop, this is why having clear what they like is very important to build the strategy.

ü  Using right your main images: The cover image and the profile image are the face of your company and it leaves a lasting impression on the visitors so it’s very important that companies use it right and according to the pixels that Facebook allows so the picture have a good quality and might encourage the visitors to look further in the page (Lachance, 2013). The cover image should describe the company; visitors should understand what the company is about just by looking at it.

ü  About Section: A brief description of the company itself is necessary, but do not overload it with too much information. The website should be in this section as well.

ü  Post frequently: If the company is using a Facebook page as one of the marketing tools, is very important to not leave aside after the first month or so, but keep it updated, posting frequently might help to get more engagement from Facebook users. Posting more about your customers interests and not just about the product that you sell, is a great tactic to use to reach the target market.

ü  Content in Facebook: Facebook is a platform in which all sort of content is posted, creating a friendly environment (Kim, 2013) is a good start. Posting interesting videos, images, articles, etc, all of them related to the business in one way or another.

Create SMART Objectives

What is the purpose of using Facebook for the company is there are not objectives attached? It is not just about having a Facebook page because everyone else has it, it's about achieving a goal for your company throughout managing the Facebook page. The goals for the company and for the Facebook page need to be SMART, and they also need to be attached. 

SMART objectives are:

ü  Specific: The objectives for social media need to be well defined and easy to understand, need to be clear and to the point. A very long objective might be confusing.

ü  Measurable: Needs to be manageable and quantifiable.

ü  Attainable: Needs to be obtainable.

ü  Relevant: It has a meaning for the company, it will worth all the effort and time put into it.

ü  Time: It needs to have an end for its compliance  

(Haughey, 2010)

When having SMART objectives, then you can create tactics within the usage of the Facebook's platform and start to evaluate them to see its results.

Evaluating the Results

Finally, evaluating the results of the tactics used for Facebook’s Platform will help to analyze if they are working or if they are not. Facebook provides with valuable information that will help a company to understand what is happening and how to use this tool better (Lachance, 2013).

ü  Timing: Check on the timing in which your target market goes more into Facebook and try to post during this particular time. Facebook gives all these statistics: which week days have more traffic and in which time.

ü  Content: Check on which content was more popular, which one was shared, commented, people that actually had an interaction with that particular post. This will help to understand what kind of content the business should post more in order to engage people. On Facebook platform try to follow the 80/20 rule by publishing 80% of original content and no more than 20% of promotional (Lachance, 2013).

ü  Evaluate the engagement: Keep the eye on the weekly engagement and do not let it down. Keep measuring what people had liked, what was the effect of the post and which content did not have the effect expected.

Keep checking constantly the Facebook Page that a company has created is a must do, engagement do not happened overnight and success take time.

REFERENCES

·         Angelova v. (2013). 7 reasons why social media is an absolute must for Business Branding. [Online] Available at: http://www.likeable.com/blog/2013/09/7-reasons-why-social-media-is-an-absolute-must-for-business-branding (Accessed: 25^th January 2013)

·         Duermyer R. (2013). Social Media Marketing, What every small business owner needs to know about marketing with social media. [Online] Available at: http://homebusiness.about.com/od/socialmediamarketing/a/Social-Media-Marketing.htm. (Accessed: 26^th January 2013)

·         Haughey D. (2010) SMART Goals. [Online] Available at: http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/pdf/smart-goals.pdf. (Accessed: 15^th December 2013)

·         Lachance G. (2013). Top 10 must read tips to run a successful Facebook Business Page. [Online] Available at: http://socialmediatoday.com/genevieve-lachance/1454711/successful-facebook-business-page-top-10-must-read-tips. (Accessed: 25^th January 2013)

·         Smith A. and Maeve D. (2013). 73% of online adults now use social networking sites. [Online] Available at: http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Social-Media-Update/Main-Findings.aspx. (Accessed on: 25^th January 2013)

·         Smith C. (2013). 7 Statistics About Facebook Users That Reveal Why It's Such A Powerful Marketing Platform. [Online] Available at: http://www.businessinsider.com/a-primer-on-facebook-demographics-2013-10. (Accessed: 16^th January 2013)