So what exactly is Facebook?

“I did it again! I find myself at the top of the screen, putting in my email address and my 8 digit password and I start my day logging in to find out what everyone is doing on Facebook.” We get a similar testimonial from many computer users today.

Facebook has become a massive part of millions and millions of people’s lives. It is a social tool where we can find out what our friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances are doing with their lives. Perhaps what gets most people hooked is the ability to reconnect with the old school and work friends and people that have been out of touch for years and even decades.

So, what is it about Facebook that makes it such a phenomenon?

Perhaps, it’s the fact that it’s a social portal. It provides us with both information and updates about people. It taps into that human instinct in ourselves that makes us want to connect with other human beings. But even more than that, it taps into the instincts to gain information about the people in our world.

So, how can you start taking advantage of the power of Facebook in your business?

For many, it’s a massive leap to go from, yes; it’s a fantastic tool that millions of people are using to: I can use it in my business and I can connect to these people to drive more sales, drive more business to my website and increase my brand presence and market share.

In reality, though Facebook is an ideal tool to get in touch with people that do want your service. The fact that it’s a sharing medium, a medium whereby people can find out things about other people, enables you to put yourself in the line of sight of your target demographic.

By being in the faces of your target prospects and by associating in an online way with the friends of potential prospects, you really can interact, engage and influence new customers. As well as this quest for new customers, you can engage with your existing customers.

You can pass on information about new products, you can talk about promotions and you can facilitate a viral process where they pass on your details and your offering to their friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances. Your Facebook audience will conduct your sales activity for you.

Having a fan page enables you to get ‘Likes’ and get you your name quickly and easily in front of potentially millions of people. The beauty of Facebook is that you gain the power of word of mouth recognition and word of mouth recommendation. Now, the Internet world doesn’t work exactly like the offline world. It’s not really word of mouth, more word for word.

The biggest key to using Facebook in your business is thinking about the tool in the correct way. You have to think that it is a social interaction referral tool. You have to engage with people in an interesting and innovative way so that you can get more ‘Likes’, get more referrals and get more interaction going with your fan page, your events and generally your business profile.

So, you have a Facebook fan page and you want to revive it.

There are a lot of things you can do if you have a fan page and it isn’t really having the impact that you want it to have. Perhaps in the past, it was running really well and you were getting some business through it, but now, it’s languishing and not producing any activity.

Here are some things you can do to revive your fan page:

1. Use the facebook like box

You’ve all seen them. These are the boxes that you can put on your websites and in various places online where people can “like your business”, your charity or whatever you’re promoting. Your target audience can get to know more about you.

Your existing users and clients can like you and then you can get increased exposure on the Internet. Also, the like box can show your visitors that you have a presence, that you have people that like you. Just the process of this can build credibility and trust for your brand and can facilitate increased sales conversions.

2. Have Facebook referred to in your emails

Obviously, social media marketing is part of an online strategy it is not the whole online strategy. By putting it in your sidebar or the footer of your email, you can just let people know about the fact that you can interact with them on Facebook.

3. Use different content mediums in your Facebook fan’s page

By sharing different types of information that are related to your business you engage with your fans. Diverse content will mean you’ll get more referrals and show up in more news feeds. With Facebook, if someone posts your contents on their wall, or if they like something that you have said or posted, then you will be referred to all of their friends through their activity updates. Different people have different preferences for types of content that they refer on Facebook.

Some refer music videos, some refer funny contents, some refer articles, some reference links. By using a variety of content on your fan page, you’ll see more exposure on the activity feeds.

4. Allow your Facebook fans to post different types of content

This is similar to no.3. Many different Facebook fan page moderators don’t allow their fans to post content. They are missing an opportunity. By enabling people to post on your fan page, you’ll be able to receive more referrals through Facebook.

As long as you moderate content properly, allowing people to post their updates, their contents, and their interest topics will make you more successful as a Facebook exposed company.

5. Take a look back at previous interactions and conversations

When you reply to previous comments and contributions to your Facebook fan page there will be notifications sent to users, drawing attention. This can be through email or through the activity feeds. By keeping activity high on your Facebook fan page you are more likely to gain interactions and connections.

6. Be human in Social media platforms

Although Facebook is a social media tool, essentially, you are actually interacting as a human being with other human beings. You are connecting with people so by thinking like a human being with human interests, rather than like a company, you are far more likely to be successful.

7. Recognise who your main fan bases are

By understanding who your fans are and connecting with them, you won’t even have to ask for referrals. You can dramatically increase your Facebook presence through your existing customers. This can truly become viral if you do it in a powerful way.

You hear radio stations asking for likes on Facebook and even offering prizes for liking a fan page. They do this because they know that if they can interact with their ready loyal base and get them talking about them, they will increase not just to the next level of friends, but perhaps in a spiral effect through many, many levels.8. Using events and event deep briefs.

By using events and talking about them you are opening them up to a wider community and you can dramatically increase your exposure. Your event can be passed from one to another and you can end up with long lists of interested parties. Post events you can keep this flow going by discussing the event, having a question and answer session, or thanking the contributors and asking for comments.

There are many more ways your business can interact with fans and potential fans on Facebook. It’s about being innovative and using the media that have been put in place to help you. By engaging with more people on Facebook you have the opportunity to dramatically and speedily connect and market to a much larger customer base.

Best of all, it’s free. You don’t have to pay to advertise, although you can if you want to by using Facebook ads. There are marketing agencies that can help you and provide you with the expertise that enables you to make the transition into the Facebook marketing world, such as building a customized Facebook page for you.

Then once you have the skills, knowledge, the tools and the habits in place, the processes are fairly simple and straightforward. Facebook marketing is fun; it’s social. The same benefits that attract people to Facebook on an individual level can help you at a business level.

So, like us you might be logging in first thing in the morning, finding yourself putting in your email, putting in that 8 digit password. But you might do it for a more functional purpose. Knowing that you are building your business and having fun at the same time.

We hope you found this article useful and you are more empowered and equipped to increase your business Facebook presence. If you liked this article, nothing like sharing your joy by clicking on the Facebook Like button above! We would love to hear your feedback and questions in the comments section below. Next month we will be talking about how to use Linkedin for your business. Have a great week!