As we put many techniques into practice we’re seeing that the best way to market on Facebook boils down to a cycle of events- Content, Traffic, Influence, and Offer.
Remember that Facebook is not about intrusive marketing where you try to just get in front of as many eyeballs as possible and push something down people’s throats. Rather, it is about endorsements. Say one person said this or another taught about that product or service, whether that person is someone we know or not is not as important as what they said especially when we’re making an instant decision to look at something further or blow it off and move on to something else.
Content
By that, we can look at how we can accomplish our own goals. The first step to Facebook marketing is Content.
We have to create something that people want to look at or comment on or share with someone else. People like finding something and taking credit for finding it. So when your content is cool or inspiring or provoking, we inately want to be the one who passed that on and say we found it or we want to be first and we want to be a part of it so that when other people find it they’ll see we were there. We also want to show it to someone else. You can create content in Facebook by using Notes, Video or other specific page applications.
Traffic
Next in the Facebook marketing cycle is Traffic. Before we can monetize anything online, we have to generate traffic. Do this by any means necessary without being unethical. Use your website or blog, forums, social bookmarks, twitter, or any free traffic you can think of. But as you start and before you have a constant flow of traffic to your content, use Facebook Ads. The whole idea behind generating traffic is to garner likes. That is when you send traffic to your content, your absolute goal is to get as many people to click the “like” button as possible. Facebook Ads have an inline liking feature which is perfect for doing this. This means they can like your content without even going to it. You’re just after the “like” at this point.
Influence
Moving on in the Facebook marketing cycle after Content and Traffic, we have Influence which is the real deal. After people have like your page, you have to spend time becoming influential to them. This means you have to connect with your audience. You can post to your page, create a group, ask your fans to join, answer to their questions, ask questions, get them talking to you, use their name, do the things which require them to respond in some form of fashion. By doing this, you increase your page’s edge rank. It tells Facebook to show them your posts on their wall which their friends can also see. You can build influence when their friends and friends of friends like your content.
We have covered most of the Facebook marketing cycle and we haven’t sold a thing yet or even tried to sell anything, nor have we sent them to an affilate offer. In fact we haven’t monetize your Facebook business page. That’s not until you have built enough of a potential market and you’re comfortable doing so. Keep in mind that when you do start monetizing, what you have built will continue on its life cycle and may die off. Repeat the facebook marketing process as long as you can will help determine your next step – content, traffic, influence… content, traffic, influence.
Offer
When you are ready to go ahead, make your Offer. Make it good and make it awesome.
Making Facebook marketing simple gives you the edge you’ve been looking for to catapult past your competitors and grow your business online.
