By Linda Scott for National Ski Council Federation 2012 Facebook Are you Faceless or Fantastic? Using Facebook for Online Marketing By Linda Scott for National Ski Council Federation 2012
Use Facebook to Provide Information Make a good first impression Provide accurate and detailed information-this builds trust What do you offer that is different? Keep it relevant and on-topic Obtain a unique URL If you are not engaging in online marketing using social media, you are lagging behind.
What you do is interesting The best way to make a good impression and catch one’s attention is: Emphasize how the reader can benefit from your site Post pictures! Use catchy images that are likely to attract your target audience. Engage your audience with photos by getting your fans to post photos of them on trips or using your product.
Use and Interact With Fans Testimonials-Use fans to create buzz via testimonials. Reward fans who are the most active and vocal. Generating word-of-mouth buzz can help you increase visitors and is one of the best ways of using Facebook for business marketing. Post news and information about your business. Two-way communication-Communicate with fans on a personal level, and respond to posts to improve your chances of attracting more fans.
Who says “You can’t buy Friends?” For $1 you can buy 20-25 fans. So, for a small amount of money, you can significantly boost the traffic of your Facebook page. Greater usage of Facebook acts as good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your site, which results in your website ranking higher by Google and other major search engines. More people will visit your website than before when SEO is elevated.
Post Regularly/Keep it Relevant To get the most of your Facebook page, come up with regular posts and updates at least once a day. Keep it relevant: ski news sports news exercises competitions resort news club and council news Post polls, questionnaires or surveys, and ask for answers Keep fans engaged while collecting information and feedback for your site Give fans a reason to visit your site
More on Keeping it Relevant Write about a current event related to snowsports Use funny You Tube video that is related to your site Encourage your audience to post pictures, stories, or questions that relate to snowsports. Celebrate milestones. From fan posts, repost content that is most interesting, AND credit the fan Keep in mind that un-liking a page is really easy, so keep posts relevant and fun. In surveys, ask easy questions that need one-word answers. Include pictures.
Facebook v Twitter “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Facebook is about pictures. Twitter is about links and text. In all of your status updates, try to include a picture. If the pic is funny, all the better.
Contests One of the most effective ways to keep your fans interested is to engage them in a contest. You can run a video contest, photo contest, or sweepstakes where fans enter names and email in order to win a prize. You can post polls, questionnaires and surveys that seek answers to keep fans engaged. Offer: Coupons t-shirts swag discounts on trips or merchandise lunch special exclusive information for free You will need third party app like Strutta, Wildfire or North Social etc. to run a contest. Read Facebook’s guidelines on contests: www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php. Give recognition of winners, so that other people would want to participate in the next contest.
Contest continued: Notes: Promotions on Facebook must be administered within Apps on Facebook.com, either on a Canvas Page or an app on a Page Tab. Cannot use “Likes” to enter contest. It’s best to have a link to webpage and vote on the webpage, or use Wildfire or ShortStack to administer contest. Very inexpensive
Facebook is a Club Your Facebook fans are real people, not just a list of names. Keep them engaged by keeping the site interesting. Keep in mind: What do your fans like? Why did they choose your site? What are you offering that others aren’t? Fans are important, don’t take them for granted. Engagement must be ongoing and continuous. Keep fans informed of what is going on with your site, trips, fan deals, future plans. Fans aren’t baseball cards-you don’t collect them. They are your guests-you have to keep them entertained and happy.