As a social media management company, we are often asked, “How can Facebook help my business?” Small business owners are not yet sure how to adapt Facebook as a viable part of their marketing mix. To be honest, I can understand that mindset, since Facebook started out as a social hangout for college students. Facebook Introduced Something New … In February 2012, Facebook launched a bidding feature for business owners who have a local business page on Facebook. This means that you, as a business owner, can create a coupon and then promote it in your newsfeed to share with your friends and contacts, and the potential customer can print the coupon and take it to their workplace to redeem. [Disclaimer: Be sure to engage with your audience and not just promote coupons and offers] I like this feature. First, because it’s free, and second, because it’s a great way to test headlines, promotions, and specials, as it gives you a chance to see what people will respond to. This is especially important for business owners when it comes to ROI (return on investment), because every savvy business owner wants to know their return on investment. Whether you have a local business page set up or not … You can create a special offer or promotion on Facebook even if you are not a local business. These are the steps to follow:
Step 1 make a great offer
You can offer discounts, sample products, and access to exclusive videos or articles. Then ask your visitors to click the “Like” button to endorse your brand. Think about how the tab should look for non-fans and fans.
Step 2. Prepare promotional banners
Create two banners for your fans and non-fans. The FB tab requirements for the width of the banner should be 520 pixels.
Step 3. Add Facebook HTML / FBML application to your page
You can ask your social media manager about this or do a search on Facebook for instructions.
Step 4. Make the welcome tab the default landing tab for non-fans
This important setting directs visitors to see the “Welcome” tab by default, instead of the Facebook page wall. To configure it, do the following:
- Visit your Facebook page and click the Settings button on your Facebook wall tab.
- Select the “Welcome” tab from the “Default destination tab for all others” drop-down menu.
Step 5. Test the tab
The site manager sees both banners, this can be confusing during a testing stage. To test your new tab, use a different Facebook account or ask a Facebook friend to test it for you.
Step 6. Add the Google Analytics code to the welcome tab
Follow-up is essential. To track your visitors on the custom Facebook page, you can add the Google Analytics code directly inside the Welcome tab. You can do this by using the FBML tag “fb: Google-analytics”. Just enter this code there:
Big brands are doing it …
The “Fan Offer” tab is a good promotional tool used by big brands like Microsoft, Pepsi and PayPal. By clicking the “Like” button, your visitors can notify all their Facebook friends about your company, product or service.