Maximize Facebook: Building Your Brand Online
Building your brand online is hard. Everyone it seems like the newest, greatest social media site has launched, and yesterday’s hot thing goes the way of Friendster or MySpace. But even with whatever Tumblr or Pinterest site comes next, there are a few big boys that are probably here to say. The biggest, of course, are Twitter and Facebook. Both offer incredible possibilities for those looking to grow their brand on line, and the best part about it is they are also both free to use.
Facebook in particular offers a unique format that is ideal marketing yourself and directly interacting with your potential clients and customers. It’s important to new users to understand the strategies that will best allow them to reach a broad audience and actually connect with them in a real and meaningful way. And at the very least, you can still use Facebook as an almost inexhaustible resource for information.
Personalize your page as much as you can. Create a custom tab that lands non-fans to an abridged landing page. (Facebook allows this) This way those who are visiting for the first time can get a quick idea as to what you are, what you are all about, and view at least one prominent call to action, such as to visit your website. Asking people to “like” your page, by the way, greatly increases the chances that they do so. Do this as much as you can without becoming too obnoxious or needy about it.
Your profile picture is also a huge part of what makes your page successful. This is basically the most prominent “advert” space you’ll have on your whole page. Don’t try and shoe horn in a banner ad here, but find something that really gets across who you are and what you do. After you get more than 25 follows, your URL optimizes, making it easier to remember and easier for people to reference. After you’ve reached 25 fans, you can go to facebook.com/username to get your URL shortened.
Last but not least, keep your page updated! Post at least once a day, twice if you have something interesting to share. Respond to comments, and follow those that follow you. This is the best way to keep your followers coming back. A few gaps here and there are understandable, but too many for too long can be a real killer for sustaining your popularity.
Facebook can give a lot back to you, and it really doesn’t take a lot of effort to reap the rewards. What are you already doing to get the most out of Facebook? Let us know!
Ed Michelson is a social media and real estate expert who buys and sells homes for We Buy Ugly Houses Colorado.
[image error]
