Published on Sep 30, 2011
The answer? Facebook Pages. These social profiles make it easy for businesses both to set up shop and to reach customers. Establishing a Company Page is a turnkey, fill-in-the-blanks approach to setting up a presence on the Web, and it doesn’t cost a dime. It provides the business owner with a platform for sharing and engaging with customers.
You can now create highly targeted ads to your Facebook Page to drive even more traffic to your brand web presence. This week, Facebook announced it will unveil a plan to offer $50 in advertising credits to up to 200,000 small businesses. You see, on a Pay-Per-Click platform such as Facebook Ads, each time a person clicks on an ad, there’s a set cost for that click through based on keywords and impressions. Under this special offer, Facebook will be picking up the tab for the first few ads delivered on behalf of companies that join the program.
The company’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, claims that every small firm should have a presence on Facebook, particularly those that can’t afford to build their own sites just yet. She estimates that of the nation’s nearly 30 million small businesses, 9 million are using Facebook to speak to their customers, and “hundreds of thousands” are spending money on ad campaigns, as well.
Social media newbies, ask yourselves this: What is your basic objective? Is it getting more customers on the phone or in the door? Building brand awareness? Creating a hub for customer engagement? Small business owners need to be where customers and prospective customers are on the Web. With a targeted list of goals, it will be easier to clear the clutter of chatter and focus on those that make the best return on your investment.
And the first step is to “Like” Facebook.
