By Shivankit Arora
The fact that Facebook has nearly 1.94 billion monthly indicates the fact that the platform is an amazing aid in improving brand visibility. But the hack is to do the right way.
Most digital marketers think that posting as many updates as possible at any arbitrary point of time is what Facebook marketing is all about. The end result isn’t more shares, likes or followers instead it is pulling in traffic from Facebook to your business site and converting the prospects into leads.
While Facebook can take your business to the next level, there are certain pitfalls you’ve got to save your business from. Let’s dive into some of the biggest Facebook marketing mistakes right away.
1. Posting Content Inconsistently
The key to successful Facebook marketing is consistency. In order to build an audience and engage them to your brand on Facebook requires time, effort and, of course, planning. Many small businesses rely on a haphazard posting schedule as a result of which their followers aren’t regularly reminded of their business’ presence. Excessively posting for a few weeks and then going for months without posting or doing any marketing isn’t the deal here.
The solution here is to design an editorial Facebook calendar and schedule your posts in a uniform/consistent manner.
While pushing content make sure to include organic content that educates your target customers. People are looking for answers to their queries on Facebook and putting up a sales oriented message every time will lead to a negative impression in the minds of your followers.
Publishing behind-the-scenes pictures of your workplace, pictures of products, or an insight into the celebration of special occasions like birthdays and promotions will go a long way in increasing brand perception, engagement, and page likes.
Here’s how Hubspot educates its audience with free online resources.
2. Not Engaging with Your Audience Online
The next pointer for being a success on Facebook requires your business to engage with your fans, even if it is at the individual level. Taking your followers into loop while commenting, asking them for feedback about your services, enquiring about their needs and pain points and responding to their set of doubts are all part of the deal.
Here’s how the Book of Mormon Facebook Page did a great job engaging its visitors. They not only won both ‘Shares’ and “Likes,” but also got boosted their customers’ brand involvement.
3. Targeting the Wrong Audience at Bad Times
Facebook ads and retargeting work wonders for getting in touch with the audience who needs your services/products the most. It wouldn’t be wrong to say the targeted reach could be used to convert your fans and followers into actual customers. However, if you don’t know who your target audience/customer is, what are their interests and other pages they like then you aren’t using Facebook well for business.
Facebook’s power editor could save the day for you when it comes to picking up the right audience.
Figuring out the optimum time of posting when a major chunk of your followers are active on Facebook is important to ensure that your brand gets seen. Many small businesses using Facebook fail to realize that most of their followers have 9-to-5 jobs and hence aren’t active on the social platform during those hours.
Instead playing around with more varied posting times like late in the evening, early morning or weekends can do the deal for you.
4. Ignoring Mobile Traffic
According to a recent survey, nearly 100 million people log into Facebook via mobile and this audience is bound to increase in days to come. It, thus, becomes important to optimize your Facebook page for mobile users. The presence of cropped out visuals or missing page components hinders the user experience for the negative.
For example, while Coca-Cola’s Facebook page was perfectly optimized for desktops, they missed out on the mobile version as a result of which the traction the brand received from the latter wasn’t as impressive as it did from the former.
5. Absence of Regular Social Media Audits
5. Absence of Regular Social Media AuditsThis could be the most important part in your Facebook marketing strategy. If you don’t know where you are going, there’s no point spending your money and time. Analyzing the content which received high engagement and regularly auditing the one which failed to pull in traction play crucial role in the success of a business’s Facebook marketing campaign.
A social media audit helps measure your progress to gauge the impact your business is making on your clients. This leads to a more focused approach towards enhanced content reach. Some KPI’s that you should be always measuring include Facebook traffic to your site, followers, engagement rate, leads & sales coming in from Facebook, cost per results ( if done with ads) etc.
Facebook marketing is an amazing way not just to build a fan base but also to spread the word about your business. But a successful campaign relies on you staying away from 5 mistakes discussed above. So go ahead and design a strategic plan to get the best out of Facebook and using it to drive your business growth.
