Trying to book revenues on Facebook?

Image via CrunchBase

A lot of people come to me asking what could be the best social media strategy. Some want to monetize their facebook page, some want more members, more likes, more more blah blah… and I ask them one simple question. “As a customer, what is social media to you?”

Folks let me tell you that no body in this world is a social media expert. People claim to be one… but frankly none has been able to crack it quite like other mass mediums of marketing. But then it is widely used today. If you want to be in the race today, social media is the way to go, facebook being the largest of them. So what do you do? Here are three simple questions and their right answers you should know before going ahead.

1) Is my target market on facebook?

Depends on who you are and what you are selling. For every business who sells directly to the customers or makes some thing that keeps the end user interested in original producer, facebook community is important. For example, if you are an ecommerce player like flipkart or snapdeal, facebook plays an important role in customer engagement. Beware, I’m saying customer engagement and not acquisition. If you are some one like an AMD or Castrol, facebook plays very important role in terms of visibility and source of information. Because customers are not likely to go to your website every day for an update. But they visit facebook every day. So it is easy to keep them updated with what best you have.

2) What should be my strategy for targeting facebook users who are my potential customers?

Even before we answer this question, let us understand why people log on to sites like facebook. If you introspect your own behavior on facebook, you will realise that people log on for letting the world know what they are doing and knowing more about what their world is doing. Some are here for friends, some for games, some for chats… how many are here for business? Possibly only people like you. So if most of them are here to connect with the like minded, share and receive… why should you be selling on facebook? Instead connect with them like a friend. Share interesting updates that connect your business with their liking. For ex., if you are a Honda, update your users about the latest concluded racing where Honda engines were used. Tell them about the new research finding your facility has come out with. May be share safe driving tips, go on and shoot interesting pictures or videos of your customers driving Honda vehicles and share them. Community likes to read more about them or people like them. Give it to them and they will come back to you.

3) Should I use facebook apps or games in order to keep the users engaged?

Yes and no. Yes if it is connected to your business in any way. No because you will end up distracting them. PLease remember, there are umpteen free apps and games available on facebook for the users to play. There are guys for whom it is daily bread to make facebook apps. So however good your app might be, after some time users will get bored of it. Please remember that facebook is a source of connect between you and your customers. The apps should help you and the user to know about each other more. It should not, in any manner what so ever, distract user from the core subject… your product/service.

I hope my post was helpful. Before signing off, I’d like to give you a million dollar advise- “Pushing sales on any social network is THE mistake you don’t want to commit” 🙂