An article in the New York Times caught my attention this week. The title “Marketing Your Business with Facebook” sounded so much like a PLR article or “guru e-book” I just had to take a look. And overall, it isn’t bad. But a few additional nuggets of gold were provided by Doug52 in the AffSpot Affiliate Marketing Forum in the form of three points which got me thinking about Facebook, and how you can apply your existing efforts to an audience there.
Which got me thinking some more. And I came to the conclusion that focusing on Facebook alone isn’t a viable strategy, but is worthwhile. You see, MySpace was viable a couple years ago. Alot of affiliates have made alot of money with MySpace. But now? Worthwhile, but not the hotbed of production of a few years ago (or even this time last year). And Facebook is no different. It’s hot right now. Take advantage. But don’t position yourself so deeply integrated with Facebook that you can’t refocus when The Next Big Thing comes along.
So what is Facebook all about? Interaction, Information, and Introspection. People joining mutual groups, sharing information, and assimilating that information. In order to market on Facebook you need to commit a certain amount of time every day to being actively logged in and interacting with others. You need to be able to provide new information 24×7x365, and you need to regularily reflect on what’s happening. All without going so nuts that you spend all your time there. Like twitter, Facebook can be a huge timewaster.
I do everything backwards… Order –> Action –> Call to Action –> Attraction –> Location –> Traffic And you should too. You don’t place an advertisement unless the stores open and ready for business. So work backwards. Here’s the key things you should be thinking about for each of these steps:
ORDER – Whether it’s your own online store or an affiliate link, make sure it’s easy, fast, clean.
ACTION – It’s all about your customer. Make all actions easy to find/see, and even easier to click
CALL TO ACTION – Don’t do Landing Pages.. Build Landing Experiences. Minisites with the brevity of a landing page, the mass of information a squeeze page has, in the format of a minisite that’s clear, clean, and easy.
ATTRACTION – Don’t push your offers. Make your message original, clear, and attractive for your niche. Support your followers, answer their questions, interact with them in a positive manner. They’ll click because they can’t help but click it’s so attractive to them.
LOCATION – Make your Facebook page informative. Add one to two personal interactions per day. Feed it with your RSS feeds, twitter updates, etc. Don’t fake it. Fake is Fatal. And place Facebook ads to attract more people to interact with you. Don’t send them directly to your minisite.. Invite them with your Facebook advertisements to interact with you via Facebook.
TRAFFIC – Study the niches you want to promote. Identify the audience so that your only offering things on Facebook that make sense. Do your homework.
This isn’t any different than planning any other marketing campaign. You research the market, target your audience, build out the Facebook page to provide a way to deliver your message, interact with your prospects, and let them experience your message repeatedly. Advertise to attract people to interact with you, and when you invite them to buy you’ve provided a minisite that draws them to complete the transaction.
Which is the whole point here. Facebook isn’t any different than any other venue. It just has more people right now. So, you put a cart at the mall to sell your shirts during Christmas season then take it out until next year. Just like you build out your Facebook marketing now while it’s hot. Maybe to either slow it down when The Next Big Thing happens or drop it entirely. It’s marketing, go where the people are. Right now, it’s Facebook.
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