Marketing strategies focus on attracting customers, building loyalty and, ultimately, increasing sales. Achieving these goals in the modern business environment requires, by default, the use of social media.
Of course, Facebook plays a major role in marketing simply because of its size. With hundreds of millions of daily users, the site hosts a large swath of practically every conceivable target market.
Success on Facebook does not automatically come after creating an account. In fact, many marketers sabotage themselves by using the site for pitching sales and advertising more than for building relationships and adding value to the community.
With this in mind, you should create a content-based social media strategy that answers questions, solves problems, entertains and educates.
Continue reading to learn about five types of content they guarantee a larger Facebook audience. By using these to market on Facebook, the awareness of your brand will spread like fire and create an atmosphere that is conducive to growth.
1. Inspire Your Followers
Everything that you publish should evoke emotions that are both intense and positive. After all, people are emotional beings and, therefore, make decisions based on how they feel. One of the major companies that exemplify this principle with their Facebook marketing is Nike. In fact, the brand barely mentions that they want people to buy Nike products. Instead, its marketers try to elicit motivating and empowering feelings that people want to have.
In a similar way, the healthcare giant Johnson &Johnson uses its Facebook page to put a humanitarian spin on its brand. After all, who can argue with helping out the poor, sick and disadvantaged? The point is that you must find ways to use Facebook to inspire people to improve their lives and the world around them. When you do this, people will respond by following your page and sharing your content. Ultimately, they will turn to your brand when they need the type of products and services that you offer.
2. Make People Laugh
Another desirable emotion ─ humor ─ can also help you connect with your audience on a human level. Therefore, what you should try to do is create Facebook contentthat includes jokes, funny images and videos, memes and stories. If you make people smile, they will not only visit your page more often to get more laughs, but they will also share such content. Even subtle ways to inject humor into your content, such as creating witty descriptions for new posts, can engage your audience. You’d be surprised how much people appreciate when you make their day.
For instance, the firm Pop-Tarts has built its Facebook profile around humor that revolves around its trademark cartoon toaster pastry and poodle. Aside from getting updates on the latest shenanigans from those characters, visitors to the Pop-Tarts page also get to enjoy all sorts of humorous videos and graphics that portray their products in humorous settings. On Facebook, be sure to follow this model, but make sure to avoid anything that could be considered offensive or distasteful.
3. Make it Visual
So far, you might have noticed the vital role that visual content plays on Facebook. Although text-based information is often appropriate and necessary, you should always remember that most people learn better visually than by reading. Additionally, Facebook users are more likely to share visual content than plain text. With this in mind, you should make a conscious effort to create a visual Facebook presence and give people something interesting to look at!
Dunkin’ Donuts illustrates this approach to Facebook with its inspirational, colorful and tasty graphics. People who visit the Dunkin’ Donuts page instinctively share the bright, creative and often humorous visuals that the brand provides. Meanwhile, Dunkin’ Donuts completely avoids direct advertising of their products: they simply know better. After spending some time learning from this delicious brand, set about publishing everything from infographics to videos in order to visually convey your message.
4. Inform Your Followers
Another underlying theme that guides the effective use of Facebook by marketers is the provision of educational value. Rather than focusing your Facebook effort on sales pitches, spend your time informing your audience about the issues that affect them. Regardless of whether you post tutorials and “how-to” articles (or videos) that instruct customers to use your products or publish relevant industry news, you have a chance to build trust and establish your firm as an authority in the marketplace.
Mint.com exemplifies the use of this strategy by using their Facebook page to provide financial education, training, and advice. Practically everyone can benefit from this type of information, even if they have never used the free Mint money-management application. Additionally, after profiting from the information, Facebook users willingly share it with their friends, coworkers, and relatives who might also need it. Learn from these example and think outside the box: Facebook can really be a powerful educational tool.
5. Post User-Generated Content
Universal Studios Orlando rocked the social media world when the brand chose to use its Facebook page to feature user-submitted photographs that depict park visitors enjoying their experience. As a result, the brand attracts high levels of attention from casual observers and park visitors alike. Indirectly, the brand encourages people to visit their attraction so that they too can appear on the Universal Studios Facebook page.
As a marketer, you also can leverage user-generated content to grow your brand. From customer testimonials to homemade tutorials, your user-generated content will promote the humanity of your brand while inspiring others to share.
Conclusion
In summary, you can dramatically grow your Facebook audience by choosing to use the site to post inspirational and humorous content. Add visual content to the mix and you can quickly and clearly communicate your message and encourage sharing. Moreover, when you use Facebook to publish informational content and user-generated material, you add value to your brand and show its humanity. In the end, you will dramatically grow both your audience and your sales, so start employing these strategies today!
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