7 Facebook Marketing No-Nos

Facebook has become a part of the marketing activities of millions of organizations worldwide. Every day, new businesses are trying out this medium to reach out to their market. You hear this everywhere: “Facebook is the way to go,” “Ignore social media at your peril,” and “X things to do in social media,” and so on. Some of these tips are coming from people with ample amounts of experience, however some are not. You need to be careful while following Facebook marketing advice. Here are few such advices you need to take very, very cautiously.

1. Focus only on Facebook, ignore other social networks

No doubt, Facebook is one of the biggest social media networks. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore others. For certain types of businesses, another social media channel might be a better choice. For example, for a local news channel or news service, Twitter might be a better choice. For a headhunting firm, Linkedin might work better.

Your focus should be on the medium where your ideal target audience is spending their time. Here’s a tip to find out that quite easily. Most social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, etc., offer paid advertising. Paid advertising offers some of the great targeting options such as geographic location, profession, personal and professional interests apart from normal targeting options like gender, age, etc. Using these, find out how many of your target audience are hanging out in that network. If the number makes sense (for some businesses, even a small number makes sense!), then make sure you are visible there.

2. Automate all your Updates

There are several tools like Hootsuite, SproutSocial, etc. that help you automate your Facebook and other social media updates. Yes, these are helpful tools to a certain extent; especially in the case of international businesses, because you may not be awake or working when your target audience is active on the social network. Using these tools you can schedule your updates and reach them. However, never use these tools to schedule your posts for weeks together and get back to your account once all those are sent.

3. The more you share the better. Really?

Remember hearing this as a kid? Yes, it might sound like a good thing to do, but not when you are on social media. Keep your Facebook updates to two or a maximum of three a day. However, it’s important to identify the best time to post on Facebook, so that it reaches the maximum number of your fans.  Equally important is the quality of what you share, it should be useful and add value to your fans.

4. Focus on Number of Likes

Don’t measure the success based on the number of Facebook fans.  It’s better to have a lesser number of fans who are engaged; rather than having thousands of fans, who do not even click on your links or like your posts or share it. Even if your community is small, try to engage with them, ask questions, respond to their comments, see how many fans ‘like’ or ‘share’ your posts. Also check how many of them click on the links and visit your sit or blog post and convert to a lead or sales.

5. Buy Facebook Fans Initially

Many businesses find it difficult to attract fans for their pages initially. To take advantage of this situation, there are several companies ‘selling’ Facebook fans and likes. When you are desperate, it may sound like a good idea, but never fall into it. Read more about the dangers of buying facebook fans.

Instead, draw the attention of your existing customer base by running an email campaign or doing a special promo on your home page. If you have the resources, you can run paid advertisements on Facebook to attract fans for your business. Facebook advertising provides various targeting options to zero down to most potential users.

6. Your Business Page Timeline Cover should not be ‘salesy’

Facebook has very strict rules as to what you can or cannot have on your timeline photo. Here are some of the most important rules:

- No price or purchase information.

- No call to action to Facebook specific activities such as Like, share or business call to action such as ‘Order now, ‘Book Now,’ or ‘Call Now.’

- No contact information like address, telephone numbers, or email address.

- The Timeline Cover can’t have more than 20% of the area with text on it.  This includes text in your logo image and any text in general.

7. Post Exactly the Same Content on Facebook, Twitter and other Social Networks

Yes, it helps you save tons of time! If that’s the case, it’s better not to use social media. By doing this, you are telling your fans that you don’t really pay attention to your social networks; you’re just on there to spread your message, not to engage or share useful stuff. There is nothing wrong with sharing the same message occasionally, but make sure it is customized for each social media channel.

Conclusion

There is no doubt; Facebook can bring you success, if used wisely. The key to success is not to forget why people use social media. They use it to keep themselves updated about people, environments and companies they are concerned about. Just keep it that simple!