Believe it or not, it’s not enough to just run ads to drive traffic to your website or landing page.
Yes, Facebook has 2 billion active users, Twitter 320 million and LinkedIn has 100 million. That’s a lot of eyeballs that you want to get your product in front of.
But social media is about more than promotion, it’s also about building relationships with your potential customers.
Traditional or “one-way” advertising, like television, radio and print don’t allow for companies to build a strong relationship with their customers. Social media, being a “two-way” advertising platform, does.
Yes, customers can comment on your ads, but that’s only one way to build a relationship with them. Here are a few more ideas to grow your social media presence and get more leads and customers.
Find the Social Media Platform Where Your Customers Hang Out
You don’t need to be all things to all people. You have a specific target market, and they are likely to spend more time on 1 or 2 platforms than they are to distribute themselves evenly across all social media platforms (of which there are many).
For instance, if you’re exclusively B2B, LinkedIn is probably the best place for you. If you’re in a more ‘trendy’ industry, like fashion or music, you may want to spend more time on Twitter.
And yes, everyone should have a presence of some sort on Facebook. It is the largest social media platform out there. People with interests of every kind hang out there and form groups that can help you promote your products and services.
Don’t forget to look at the less “popular” platforms as well. For instance, one of FunnelDash’s VIP customers, Gina DeVee of Divine Living discovered that many of her customers were on Pinterest.
Start a User Group or Community for Your Business
This is a great list building idea, and is best used on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ where you can create dedicated groups. (Yes, people still use Google+, I was a bit shocked too.)
Make this a place where your current and potential customers can come for information, share ideas and learn from you and from each other.
For instance, we have the FunnelDash User Community. If you haven’t joined yet, you really should. We have a lot of fun in there. Group members ask questions and exchange ideas regularly
We’ve also started doing Facebook Live events where Matthew Kauk walks through our new app to show our customers what has changed and how they can make the best use of FunnelDash.
You will need to figure out how you want to use your group or community for your company. But the most important thing to remember is this is a place to develop relationships, not just a place to promote your products and services.
Join Groups and Communities that Relate to Your Products or Services
Sometimes it’s easier to start building relationships in an established group than it is to start one of your own. If you do this, it’s very important to remember that this is someone else’s social circle. Follow the rules, be polite and contribute to the group more often than you promote your products or services.
This can be a very good way to get your message out there and get people interested in what you have to offer. It also shows that you’re a good community member and are interested in more than just “the sale.”
Utilize Your Profile Pages
Each social media platform gives your business the opportunity to say a little something about itself. This can be anything from a sentence or two, to a full description of your company, depending on the platform.
All of them let you link to your website (which you should really do) and display other contact information. Make sure you keep this updated so potential customers can reach you.
And there’s the obvious suggestion, promote your blog posts, news articles and other information about your company on your profile page. Don’t forget to encourage your followers to share these with their audiences.
Give Away a Lead Magnet
Yes, this may seem overused, but one of the best ways to build trust with potential customers is to give them something useful.
Facebook lets you use one of their tabs to promote a landing page. Leadpages, Unbounce and ClickFunnels users can add a landing page automatically, as may other landing page builders. MailChimp and Infusionsoft also have Facebook integrations, as do other email service providers.
Connect your landing page or opt-in form to your lead magnet and promote it on your page.
You can schedule regular posts on your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn feeds with a link to your landing page or opt-in form. Twitter and Facebook also let you pin posts to the top of the feed.
And finally…
Run Ads on Your Chosen Social Media Platforms
As mentioned earlier, this isn’t the only way to promote your business. But it is a good one, when combined with the relationship building we’ve already discussed. Most social media platforms have some way to advertise to your chosen audience, complete with demographic targeting.
We will recommend Facebook ads (of course) as a good promotional medium. After all, approximately 80% of current ad spend is going to Facebook right now.
This does mean the platform is saturated. But you can get great ROI from Facebook ads if you target your audience well, test your ad creative, and use FunnelDash to run and analyze your campaigns.
Right now, we're offering a special training that will show you exactly how to build and run an effective lead generation campaign for your agency in Facebook Messenger.
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How do You Promote Your Business on Social Media?
Do you have a social media method or technique you recommend? Tell us about it in the comments.
