Tips to Marketing on Facebook

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 by Janet Meiners

Tips to Marketing on Facebook

MarketingSherpa just ran a great article on how to market yourself or business on Facebook. As they point out the approach to marketing in a social community takes a little different approach than marketing in other contexts. Offending the community means you won’t be trusted.

It goes like this. Imagine going to church and thinking that there are a lot of people in your potential market there. So you decide to make an announcement about a big sale at your store. Everyone feels uncomfortable. It’s happened to me and it was in bad taste.

Facebook is a community of 46 million members, it’s growing by 3% a week since January, especially with the 25 and older demographic. I’ve noticed more and more friends joining in the past few weeks.

MarketingSherpa interviewed Andrew Kaplan and Neil Patel, who is Chief Technical Officer at ACS, a social media marketing and search engine optimization agency, to see how to best optimize for Facebook. I’ve added some of my thoughts below.

Your Profile and URL
Every social network with a profile page can be an opportunity to brand yourself or your business. I don’t know if Facebook lets you do this (my profile is http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=626820159) but many social networks like MySpace will give you a custom URL. So I could be http://www.facebook.com/newspapergrl.

Also, create a separate profile for your business. If you’re an unknown, use one of your main keywords in the URL such as http://www.facebook.com/SEOcopywriting

Put links to articles you’ve written, to your LinkedIn profile, and to any articles about you. Talk about successes and specific goals.

I thought this was well-put: “If you say, ‘I’m looking for a job,’ people have a hard time with that. If you say, ‘I’m looking for a job with a PR firm based in New York in the entertainment industry,’ that’s more specific. You have to be very clear what your intentions are. Be very specific about what you’re looking for and people will help you, just like any part of life,” Kaplan says.

Join a Facebook Group
You can create or join groups on Facebook and share information with others. I checked out the biggest internet marketing group and it was full of advertising everything from an MLM to want-to-be-rich-quick internet gurus. But there are groups that are active and professional.

After you join a group, you can text-message other members, send them emails, comment on their profiles or contact them. You’d be surprised at the range of types of groups there are.

Buy Advertising Space
I didn’t know this but you can buy an ad on Facebook. It’s called Facebook Flyers Basic so you can create banner-like advertising on networks. This is a great way to target advertising to a specific demographic.

Facebook also has Flyers Pro — a cost-per-click advertising program that’s triggered by keyword searches (like Google AdWords). The article has more in-depth tips on how to do this and I’d be interested if anyone reading this has tried either advertising method.

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27 comments on “Tips to Marketing on Facebook”

Mark Mayhew Says:

October 31st, 2007 at 4:02 pm

am I the only person that redirects a .com to his profile on Facebook? (I’ve only been doin’ it like forever!)
Fred Says:

October 31st, 2007 at 6:22 pm

#1 or the tactic described by Mark do not work. The reason is that Facebook profiles can only be read by the friends of that profile-owner, unlike myspace where I can view someone’s personal page without being their friend.
pho ones Says:

November 1st, 2007 at 8:30 am

am I the only person that redirects a .com to his profile on Facebook? (I’ve only been doin’ it like forever!)… i am too
southwest seo Says:

November 1st, 2007 at 1:00 pm

Great article! Facebook allows you to customize the url or your profile
It’s in the profile web address module- for example the profile web url for my facebook profile is http://profile.to/southwestseo/
Steven Bradley Says:

November 1st, 2007 at 5:30 pm

It makes a lot of sense to focus on people when it comes to social networking. It’s easy to get lost in always thinking about algorithms, but in the end the best way to make any social networking or bookmarking site work for you is to use the system as an end user and become a valuable member of the community.
Xavier Vespa Says:

November 2nd, 2007 at 8:01 pm

I’m actively implied in the creation of a Fb Group, and both your article and the one of the Marketing Sherpa are good.
However, they do not talk people’s motivations for joining a group and the social strategies you need to set beforehand to make sure your group will be composed of the people you are interested in targeting.
8 Creative Ways to Use Social Media for Your Job Search Says:

November 7th, 2007 at 5:08 am

[...] Tips to Marketing on Facebook [...]
Zen Says:

November 27th, 2007 at 8:04 am

You can buy ads on facebook. I know some people that do this…
Facebook Flyers Die Dec 03 + Ad Campaign Data Says:

November 27th, 2007 at 4:19 pm

Err, you didn’t know at the time you posted it, I’m sure, but Facebook flyers are set to die in favour of Facebook Ads. Might want to edit this post with an update.
Mark Says:

November 27th, 2007 at 11:35 pm

redirecting a domain name to a Fan Page works (don’t believe me, click on mine!).
Helix Commerce International - Collaboration Commerce Accelerators » 2008 » February » 17 Says:

February 17th, 2008 at 9:39 pm

[...] Tips to Marketing on Facebook: Writer Janet Meiners considers some of the basic but effective marketing tools that Facebook has to offer. [...]
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February 23rd, 2008 at 9:56 pm

http://socialauthority.ning.com/

Just thought some of you would appreciate knowing Jack Humphrey just started a social networking site about social marketing at the url above.

The more I use Facebook the more I like it. It is easy to post blog posts into and there are a lot of marketers and bloggers to hang out with. I haven’t used Facebook advertising yet but will as soon as I learn more about how it works.
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April 5th, 2008 at 7:47 pm

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Facebook Tips - by Dr Cindy Gordon | Barrie Business News Says:

April 8th, 2008 at 7:43 am

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Jia Says:

April 27th, 2008 at 11:58 am

News feed on facebook is the most effective that keeps you in touch to what people are doing. I usually end up adding those apps which i see my friends using it.

Jia’s last blog post..Miami floods with foam flakes?.
How to Get Traffic from the top Social Media Sites Says:

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Facebook Marketing Tools Says:

October 7th, 2008 at 5:27 pm

I tried advertising on Facebook using their ad system. It wasn’t very effective for me. I think people have banner blindness when it comes to ads placed. Has anyone else have better success with it?
Part 1: Social Media Marketing For Small Business: Prioritize, Plan and Execute | Kyle Lacy, Social Media - Indianapolis Says:

October 12th, 2008 at 1:13 pm

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Tapping into an online phenomenon more popular than porn. :: Christopher Ross Says:

October 16th, 2008 at 3:16 am

[...] are countless ways to market on Facebook and almost as many tutorials out there but here are some of my [...]
Facebook Marketing, a how to guide from every angle « Website Marketing and Advertising Says:

November 5th, 2008 at 1:13 pm

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100 Facebook Marketing Techniques You Can Use Right Now « Iron Shirt Ink Says:

November 19th, 2008 at 11:00 pm

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Jeroen Says:

November 20th, 2008 at 4:51 am

thank you for this useful information!
just started with facebook and I think it has great marketing opportunities.
Social Spin Says:

December 17th, 2008 at 8:07 am

great post on facebook marketing!

Sam

Social Spin’s last blog post..Contact Us
All about facebook « Facebook Marketing Says:

January 6th, 2009 at 3:06 pm

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May 26th, 2009 at 9:06 pm

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Marketing Pilgrim