The second wave of COVID-19 took us back in time to when the lockdown of the few months ago was called. This return to the lockdown, even if soft, will allow to think things over and improve some of the aspects of our business ommunication that were perhaps left behind as we got busy with the slight recovery taking place few months ago. Under difficult circumstances, it could be more difficult than usual to support employees and communicate with customers. For this reason, there are indeed some available resources that could help companies to reduce the interruptions to the minimum.
This article is the first of a series of articles that will illustrate in detail how some of the actions taken on social networks can help to improve the marketing strategy of a business in a simple and efficient way. The first tool that we are going to analyze is Facebook.
This social media network creates important connections. As a matter of fact, 2.7 billion people use Facebook to contact friends, family members, companies and check contents of interest every month. The tool helps businesses find new clients and create durable relations with them, it develops and boosts the online presence.
Objectives
The first thing to do is to define the main objective of the presence on the social media:
• Increase the brand awareness;
• Transform visitors into buyers;
• Increase sales on the local level;
• Connect the online marketing activities to a point of sale;
• Generate contacts through followers and fans;
• Reach the people who have interacted with your company;
• Tell your story in an extraordinary way.
According to the objective chosen, a matching message will follow in order to capture the attention and trigger action.
The first step is to create a personal profile, if we do not have one.
It will allow to access Facebook and create a Company Page.
A Company Page works in a different way than the personal profile page. A Company Page or a Business Page helps to talk about your business, not about your personal life. For instance, you can add a showcase to it while you cannot do this on your personal profile. Through a Business Page we can obtain statistics figures on the way people interact with your company through Facebook and discover who liked it more. It offers many new ways to connect with people.
A quick look on how a Facebook page is made
There are many tools that help businesses connect with people. It is not crucial to use them all immediately, but it is a good idea to know which ones are available to us. Just like a Facebook profile, there are two main images to upload: a profile image where the company logo is to be uploaded and a Cover image where we can upload an image with a slogan or a call to action. The company name will be visible under the profile picture. The advantage of choosing the right name will help with the search engine optimization indexing.
Using a Facebook page is very intuitive. We can do all sort of things such as create posts, broadcast live videos, make an offer, write an article or a note. Thanks to the insight, we can visualize statistics and figures, consult the information on how people actually find the page and how they interact with it. The available information can include the number of people checking your page, the viewing of the posts, etc.
Another interesting aspect is the choice of a category. For example: does your business offer laundry services? Does it produce detergents? The main reason why we should pick a category is to be further characterized within the indexing so that we can be immediately identified during the online search.
What is more, categories help to pre-set a model of the page including the information that will be useful to customers. For example,
if a company has got an e-commerce website, nobody will be interested in the address of the business so it won’t be necessary to include it, but if we are talking about a local laundry, it will be crucial to publish the address, the opening hours and a telephone number.
Description
Description is very useful in the search stage because it allows a business to be found easily by the people who look for that particular business online. The text contains the maximum of 255 typewritten characters. We should present the business, its points of strength and, first of all, how it distinguishes itself from the others. It is advisable to write a brief and clear description so that people can understand what the company offers. We should consider a unique and distinctive element in comparison to other pages. People will see the description in the section dedicated to page information.
Competitor Analysis
Thanks to the Business Page it is also possible to monitor the competitors by checking what they publish and how popular their posts are, the number of viewings, the number of likes.
How can we obtain more “Like” of the Page?
After creating the Business Page, the first problem starts: nobody has clicked on the “Like” button. A good start is to publish a captivating cover image so that it draws more “Likes” and visits.
After that, one can start thinking about increasing the Community by inviting friends to click on the “Like” button of the Page. Asking clients and friends to follow the Business Page is the quickest and most effective way to start creating the proper presence online and get others to know you. Clients might have friends who could be interested in the products or simply follow the company or the new page.
Another way to obtain a “Like” on the Page is by sharing it through a post or a link to a company website. A welcome post placed on the top of the page is the best way to greet new customers.
A call to action
Having created the Business page on Facebook, the most difficult thing is to push the people to action: visiting the business, consulting the website, buying the products or the services or simply contacting you. There is a button that will help you obtain such types of actions specifically.
It is called a “call to action” button, or a CTA button. The CTA button can encourage those who visit the page to carry out a determined action, for instance, ask for a consultancy or call your shop, or perhaps discover details on a specific product. The button can be customized according to personal choices.
Now you are ready for your first steps on Facebook! •
by Alessandro Martemucci,
Marketing Consultant
Officinae Marketing Management
Detergo Magazine January 2021
