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5 Ways to Snag More Facebook Likes for Your Business

Social media is crucial for growing your business online, but some business owners are hesitant about asking their customers to like them on Facebook. In reality, it's no different than asking people for their e-mail adressses or to subscribe to your newsletter.

So why do you want more Facebook likes?

• After someone likes your business, it shows up in his/her news feed, giving you the chance to get more likes.
• Once you post a status update, it may appear in your liker’s news feed (if your content is engaging and if their news feed is set up to post liked content).
• When you use Facebook ads, it could appear to your liker's friends.

Here's a some ideas for getting more Facebook likes:

1. Create Facebook ads.

2. Coupon with an e-mail campaign - Ask people to "Like" you on Facebook to get the coupon.

3. Contest e-mail campaign - Ask people to "Like" you on Facebook for a chance to win "x" prize.

4. E-mail and ask your list to "Like" you.

5. Message your personal Facebook friends.

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These tips are a surefire way to snatch up Facebook likes and quickly grow your business through social media. If you're a busy professional and don't have time to promote your business online, we recommend Wheel Media; a Bay Area seo company company who also specializes in web design and online marketing services.

Budgeting for Social Media Marketing

The long red bar in the graph to the right shows that half of surveyed respondents are spending between 1% and 10% of their marketing budget on social media marketing.

And overall, most companies are spending less than 20% of their marketing budget on social media... but 73% say they expect to spend more on social in the next year.

This article on emarketer has some more information, including some thoughts about analytics.

What's the story with your business? What are you spending on social media marketing, and are you planning on increasing that amount? How are you measuring your ROI? 

 

 

Helpful Tools for Twitter

The Chicago Tribune posted an article recently, highlighting some useful tools for Twitter users - especially people who use Twitter for marketing purposes.

• Buffer, which spreads your tweets out through the day
• Crowdbooster, which gives you detailed analytics about your tweets
• SocialBro, which gives you info about your followers, and allows you to follow/unfollow

Probably a good idea to take a look at these services, if you haven't already. 

Click here for the full article.

Brand Champions

You're probably already got some brand champions, and you don't even know it. They're probably not A-list actors or celebrities, or anything like that, because if they were, you'd definitely know it... but that's alright. Personally I think word-of-mouth can even be more effective than some kind of big-name endorsement, because I think people probably realize the celebrity is getting paid and doesn't actually drink that kind of orange juice, or whatever. An endorsement from a friend is more likely to get me to try a new restaurant, though.

So you've got fans, and they've got great things to say about you. How do you leverage them?

This article on openforum.com has some tips - first, you've got to find them. See who's talking about you, positive or negative, and connect with them. Continue those conversations. Create communities and spaces for them. Give them mountaintops to shout from, and they will.

 

 

Keep it Positive

When you're interacting with people on Facebook, Twitter, the forum on your website, and other places online, does it feel like you're putting out fires? Constantly trying to turn the unhappy customers into satisfied customers, skipping over the positive feedback to get to the next problem that needs to be fixed?

That's probably not the best strategy - because although fixing problems is a good thing, breezing over the positive posts can effectively hide them from outsiders looking in.

Smartblogs.com has a video about Dell's engagement program, and what they've learned. They're doing well, and we could all learn from them.

Watch the video here.

Why use Twitter to give away things for free..?

Mediapost.com has a great article about Ben and Jerry's, and the ways they're using social media to reach people. 

The most interesting thing, for me, is how they changed their strategy from announcing a giveaway location, to asking people a simple question - "Who wants ice cream?" In my mind, that's where it goes from being a "corporate promotion event" to a conversation. Instead of being made aware that if they want some free ice cream, they should head out towards the giveaway location (and hope that they haven't run out) - now people are invited to talk about their favorite flavors, or how they've been outside in the 90 degree sun all day and ice cream would really hit the spot. And, of course, having Ben & Jerry's deliver ice cream would be a dream come true in a situation like that.

It brings to mind this commercial from a while back:

Read the article about Ben & Jerry's here.

A few of the brands doing well on Pinterest

Recently we posted an article here on Leverage called "Image-based Social Networking" about Pinterest, and how the site could be useful to brands.

OnlineMBA.com recently posted an article, too, about 10 brands that are doing very well on Pinterest - Whole Foods, Mashable, Nordstrom, Benjamin Moore, The Weather Channel, and more.

Check out their article and take a look at their Pinterest pages, if you're looking for inspiration.

Do you have a "Timeline" mindset yet?

Does your business have a Facebook page? If it doesn't, I think it's safe to say you probably should - and if you do, then you've probably noticed the recent change to the new timeline view.

Have you been doing anything differently, or just treating it like Facebook-as-usual?

Adage says you've got to evolve your thinking - read the article here.

There's a great list of tips on SproutSocial.com, here, including some great examples of pages that are doing some really good things with timeline. 

 

Business with a social mission.

"The wave of online businesses with a social mission is coming quickly," according to this article on openforum.com.

The first company that comes to mind is Toms shoes - they're a ubiquitous example of a company with a social mission. More are coming, and I think that's a good thing. People often feel helpless to make real change in the world, but even a college student on a ramen-noodle budget can choose to do business with companies who are working to make the world a better place, not just enrich their CEOs and stockholders.

And, maybe even more importantly, a company with a social mission can advertise that fact - and then their competition starts to look like the wrong choice. Business as usual suddenly doesn't work so well... and to be honest, I think that's a good thing.

Here's a link to the article.

 

Get Personal to Succeed in Social Media

The combined Twitter following of Nike, Starbucks, Disney and Whole Foods is still less than the 8.2 million followers amassed by singer Chris Brown, writes Chris Copeland. That suggests that brands need to start behaving more like celebrities, offering a personal connection and exclusive content rather than bland corporate messaging, in order to succeed on social channels.

Read the article on AdAge.