Facebook is easily among the best known and most used sites… and hubs of activity on the planet today. It far and away the top social network (at the time of this writing, at least). And it has no real signs of slowing down. With such a large user-base, it's an obvious choice for marketers, entrepreneurs, and businesses large and small to focus so much attention on the platform for brand awareness, traffic generation, collecting leads, and even making sales.
Over the past decade, social sites have come and gone, and many have been losing traction. YouTube, for example, starting in late 2014 started to lose a considerable amount of traffic in lieu of other video sharing sites, including video streaming platforms and Facebook, where video has become increasingly popular.
Facebook is responsible for a huge amount of web traffic (that means people clicking on a link posted to Facebook), and it shows few signs of slowing down any time soon. Mark Zuckerberg and his team are clearly in it for the long haul, and are continuing to find ways to innovate and compete with the likes of Google, Apple, Microsoft, and others who you'd never even think of as their “competition.”
But for most small businesses, marketing on Facebook seems to be a bit more confusing than necessary… and, often times, the route to marketing success on Facebook has been so mysterious that the effort has been abandoned altogether. Too bad, because Facebook is an exceptionally effective way to reach consumers and build a strong business.
But because social media isn't the same as traditional media (like newspapers, television, or radio) it can be a bit more difficult to understand how to approach it strategically.
One of the most common mistakes I see all the time on Facebook is that businesses behave like businesses… not like social creatures. That is to say they don't recognize how consumers (or their audience) actually communicates on the platform. It is “social” media, after all.
Another major Facebook mistake is building a personal profile page for your business, but not creating a fan page. Not only do you miss out on some of the benefits of a fan page (like being able to advertise or the ability to connect with more than 5000 people), but using a personal profile solely for commercial purposes is actually in violation of Facebook's rules.
And then there is the MAJOR mistake of not being consistent with your posts… or worse, giving up on your Facebook page altogether. With so many businesses being found through their Facebook pages (since they often rank higher on Google searches than businesses websites do), it's a wise idea to keep your status fresh, posting at least a couple of times a week.
Don't wind up like the brand Grey Poupon, which completely abandoned its page back on April 3, 2014. I'm pretty sure they are still in business, aren't they?
Overcoming these mistakes just takes a little understanding of how the social media platform works, and how it differs from traditional media marketing. For some great pointers, and a more complete list of Facebook Marketing Mistakes (and how to avoid them), download a copy of my free report, aptly named… Facebook Marketing Mistakes.