Facebook is quickly becoming one of the most recognised brands in the world. As much as we know the golden arches of McDonalds and the swirly white on red of the Coca Cola logo, we see the little blue ‘f’ and we instantly know it refers to Facebook.
The first key to marketing via Facebook is understanding it – recognising how it can revolutionise your business.
Mark Z and his friends at Facebook Head Office are a pretty clever bunch and have devised hundreds of clever ways in which they can help you market your beauty business via the medium of Facebook – but very few businesses understand exactly how to do it, or indeed why they should be doing it. And no, ‘someone told me I should be on Facebook’ doesn’t qualify as a good reason.
Seven Reasons To Help You Understand The Power Of The Little Blue F
1. Its sheer size
According to Facebook themselves, as of September 2014 they have 1.35 billion monthly active users within its audience. Yes, billion. Within this number, they boast 864 million daily active users – people who use it every day. I’m sure many of you are included in that figure – I know that I am!
That also means that your clients almost certainly are too. It has become an incredibly powerful tool that can help launch you right in front of your potential clients base – letting you shout about who you are, what you do and how blimmin’ well you do it.
2. Its targeting ability
Facebook knows pretty much everything about each and every one of its users – which gives you and me a HUGE advantage. It means we can target people so specifically that our advertising ONLY goes to those who are relevant – and whose business we want.
I can tell you that if I chose to write an advert to target the following –
- Women
- 20km from my business location
- Aged between 24 – 45
There are 74,000 actively on Facebook within this profile. So I can create an advert JUST to these users as they are my target market – and I don’t have to waste my valuable funds on adverts to people that just wouldn’t be interested in my salon and spa. This, quite frankly, is a marketing game changer.
3. Its interactive personality
Communicating with our clients is essential in business – whether it’s to attract new business, speak to our current clients or to encourage previous clients coming back again – we can only successfully do this by reaching out and speaking directly to them.
The amazing thing about Facebook is how easily it lets us speak to our clients – through posts and comments, adverts, shares, messenger – we can communicate back and forth so simply and freely.
Communication is key in developing relationships, and Facebook makes it so easy. Just don’t over do it and become a nuisance!
4. Its little hidden gems that let us work when we aren’t working
Facebook has a few little tricks in place to help you work smart – such as its scheduling ability. Did you know you can write a post and click the little clock below which lets you choose a time and date for your post to be updated?
This means you can sets posts up in the day for that evening, schedule posts for special events or offers and even run all your posts planned in advance ready to be out marketing for you whilst you sleep / sit in the pub / lay on a sunlounger / get your hair done (delete as applicable). Just think of the possibilities! You can schedule your entire week of posts in one sitting if you so desire.
5. Insights
The most underused button on a business page; the insights button. This gives you essential information to help you run your page better by identifying your customers and their activity. A simple click on this page will help you understand in much more detail who your fans are and what your fans are up to – this will help you work out when they respond, when they are on line, and when you will maximise your exposure.
If you’ve never clicked it before then go do it after you’ve finished reading this.
6. Its real time visuals
Facebook acts, for some of us, as an online photo album – and it can be used like this for your business too! People LOVE visuals – and the beauty industry is one that echoes this more than most. When it comes to a beautiful treatment room, a pair of perfectly painted nails, a golden brown tan – your clients want to see your capabilities – and this is an excellent way to provide your guests with an online gallery that they can choose to flick through at their leisure.
Of course, an additional bonus of this is that their friends will then see your work in their feeds too – and they could well be potential new clients right there. So encourage photos, and encourage your clients and staff to post, tag and share!
7. Its feedback
You may have noticed the little star rating section at the top of your Facebook page as well as a few ’recommendations’ listed down the side.
This is a perfect place to get your happy clients shouting about how wonderful they think you are– and it gives you a platform to share testimonials from a satisfied guest.
Encourage your clients to feedback and post 5 star ratings! This will show up every time a new client visits your page so keep it high with great treatments and fabulous customer service.
So there are just some of the many, many reasons why you should, no, MUST be on Facebook and connecting with your clients. You’ll see many more Facebook and other social media posts on here in the future too.
What are the best reasons for using Facebook in your opinion? What successes have you had? Leave a comment below, we’d love to hear from you!
PS – do come and say hi to me on Facebook too! You can do so by clicking here.