How to Grow Your Facebook Community in 3 Easy Steps

20% of Facebook users have made a purchase based on Facebook ads or comments on a brand page, Marketo

68% of consumers go to social networking sites to read product reviews, Marketo

Consumers who followed a link to a retail site from Facebook spent an average of $102.59, HubSpot

Social Commerce is projected to grow in the U.S. from 1 billion dollars in 2011 to 14 billion dollars in 2015, Marketo

These statistics support the idea that­ both small and large businesses must develop and maintain a strong Facebook presence going forward to be competitive.. Whether you are an established national or international brand such as Coca-Cola or Nike, persuading your existing fan base to engage with you on social media sites is relatively easy. Big brands can grow their Facebook community from hundreds into thousands or even tens of thousands, seemingly overnight. And some of the biggest brands, like Nike, have built an ever-growing Facebook community of millions. For smaller businesses, growing a Facebook community requires more time and a much stronger strategy than simply sending out an email saying “hey, LIKE us on Facebook!” or placing a Facebook icon on your homepage. The good news is, growing your Facebook community into the hundreds or thousands can be done relatively quickly and has multiple immediate benefits which include:

• Increased brand awareness with your target audience
• Increased social proof which will help boost sales
• An audience you can engage, entertain and sell to for years to come

Given that Social Commerce is projected to grow into a 14 billion dollar industry in just a few years, now is the time to take advantage of that growth. Three Ways to Grow Your Facebook Community There’s no single formula that will help each business reach its desired goals. That being said, a good Facebook growth strategy will have a strong foundation in the following three tactics:

1. Run a low-cost targeted Facebook “like” ad campaign.
2. Integrate social media campaigns with email marketing campaigns.
3. Identify opportunities on the website to increase Facebook visibility without decreasing conversions – such as on Thank You pages.

By executing these three actions, any brand in any industry can begin growing their Facebook community, immediately. 1. Facebook “like” ad campaigns: Facebook ad campaigns that have the goal of increasing your number of “likes” or community size are charged on a CPM basis. CPM stands for Cost per Thousand views. That means your account will be charged a certain fee every time a thousand people see it. The amount you are charged per thousand views is based on a bidding process (you bid against other companies and the highest bid wins the ability to have their ad shown at any given time). You can set your max bid to whatever you want it to be. When it comes to setting your targeting parameters you have a variety of really helpful options to ensure you’re reaching the right people for your business. Here are just some of the ways that you can target your Facebook ads:

• Location
• Age
• Gender
• Interests
• Relationship status
• Language
• Education
• Workplace

This type of targeting not only gives you the ability to reach a much more precise group of people than Google Ads, but also the ability to grow your community and extend the value of the ad by re-marketing to the people who “like” your page over the months and years ahead. 2. Integrate Social Media with Email Campaigns While Facebook ads provide a great way to quickly grow your community, it isn’t the only method you should be using. Most of your new “likes” from a Facebook ad campaign will come from people who haven’t heard of your company before but who are interested in learning more. Ideally, however, your Facebook community will consist of a mix of leads and existing customers. After all, only existing customers can leave you wonderful customer reviews on your Facebook page.  And since we know 60% of shoppers will look at a Facebook page for customer reviews, this is crucial. One of the best ways to increase your Facebook community with existing customers is through email marketing. It is likely that you already have the email address of each of your customers, so why not send then an email incentive to “like” your Facebook page? For example, you might consider offering all customers who “like” your page within a specific time frame, a 20% off promo code for their next purchase. To manage this type of campaign, you would simply need to:

1. Determine your offer
2. Design and develop your email
3. Create a custom landing tab for your Facebook page

A custom landing tab is like a landing page for your Facebook presence.  On it you can include:

• A coupon that can be printed out
• A link to a coupon, a promo code
• A form that needs to be filled out so that a coupon/code can be emailed
• A whole variety of other things

Most importantly, you can gate a custom landing tab so that only people who “like” your page can access the reward. You can create one landing tab (which we would suggest for getting started – or you can create many). Once your tab is created you can link directly to it, or Facebook users can find it on your Facebook page next to your company description and the number of “likes” you currently have:   This type of integrated social media and email campaign benefits both the customer and your company. You get to grow your Facebook community and increase sales, while the customer gets a promo code for his or her next purchase. It’s a win-win! Here’s another pro-tip: when someone checks out using your promo code send them a special Thank You email that asks them to leave feedback on your Facebook page. Something like:  “Hi [First Name]! Thanks for joining our Facebook community and taking advantage of the exclusive 20% off promo code for Facebook fans only!  We would really appreciate if you would leave us feedback on our Page (include link).  Once we receive X number of reviews we’ll post another exclusive Facebook offer!” Again, to increase the number of people who participate you should provide an incentive for leaving feedback. As I hope you can see from this small look into how a social media and Facebook campaign can work together, it’s not enough to plan Facebook promotions on the fly. If you want them to be really successful and meet big goals, you must plan them in advance. 3. Identify Opportunities on the Website to Increase Facebook Visibility You may be thinking this is a “simple” task – “just add a Facebook icon or widget to the header or footer of the site and voila!” You wouldn’t be wrong in placing Facebook icons or widgets in these areas, but there are other, more strategic places you’ll want to place them (and not place them). For example, you should not place any social media icons on a product page where you want the visitor to focus on making a purchase. By distracting them with links that go away from your call to action of “Add to Cart” or whatever it may be, you will likely decrease your sales. However, placing your Facebook icon on the Thank You page after the sale has been completed makes a lot of sense. Your visitor has just become a customer and now you want to give them an incentive to become part of your community where you can remarket to them in the future. A call to action on the Thank You page for a cosmetic company might sound like this: Thank you for your purchase! “Like” our Facebook page today for tips from our expert beauty team and to receive exclusive Facebook offers and promo codes!” You may be noticing a theme here – every time you ask a customer or lead to “like” your page you should include a reason why. You’ll increase the number of people who will convert into fans this way and it shows you appreciate your community.  ]]>