Facebook is an invaluable web-marketing tool with remarkable potential for both success and failure. Among Social Media applications, Facebook is the 600 pound gorilla. Your goal is to direct that power into a cohesive, successful, targeted marketing campaign. Most folks bumble around, tripping over themselves and doing more harm to their company than good. Follow my advice and you’ll be off to a good start…here’s a step-by-step guide for developing a targeted audience.
Step One:
Know your target! If you don’t know who you’re looking for, how can you look? Sit down and write down who, exactly, your ideal audience is. How old are they? What are their professions? Where do they live? Start specific- you can always broaden your audience later.
Step Two:
Sharpen your arrow! Review your website, Facebook, and blog content and make sure it’s written for your target audience. You can’t catch a shark if you’re fishing with turnips. If the content conflicts with your ideal audience, you either need to rewrite the content or shift your sights to a different demographic.
Step Three:
Track your prey! Time to log-in to Facebook and get the creativity flowing. Facebook’s search engine is deceptively simple. You’re probably wondering “how the heck am I going to find 30 year post-graduate marketing associates in the San Diego area when there aren’t any options for that?” The answer is: you’ve gotta be tricky! Although you can’t select those specific fields, you can search “marketing associate,” and then specify “in San Diego,” and then “graduates of Berkley.” Chances are, you’ll have several pages of folks! Imagine, it’s that easy to find and connect to highly targeted niche audiences!
Step Four:
Throw your spear! Now you’re going to start adding friends. This is a very delicate procedure- you don’t wan to ruin your businesses credibility by spamming. I suggest adding 20-50 people per day. When they accept your friend invitation, don’t rush into selling them anything. Seriously, don’t. How would you like it if someone came up to you at a cocktail party and started pushing a used car on you before even saying hello? Treat Facebook just like a cocktail party. Get to know people, offer solutions to their problems, be a source of information. Your most valuable resource online is your credibility.
Step Five:
Heading home! Ultimately, your success or failure with social media depends on three things: the quality of your product, your social etiquette, and the time you invest. If any of these are lacking, you’ll probably flop. Just remember to keep your ducks in a row and follow your steps!
Happy hunting,
-Rod Campbell
Marketing Director
Chirohosting.com
