Facebook is still the largest social networking site on the internet. Despite many problems with leaking user data, Mark Zuckerberg’s hearing before a commission or falling stock prices, Facebook is still doing great and revenues from selling advertising space are constantly growing. The Silicon Valley social platform has over 2 billion users, so it is still a place that cannot be overlooked when constructing a marketing strategy. It is not surprising that many companies reach their customers through Facebook and set up their profiles there. At first glance, keeping a corporate profile may seem like an easy task. In reality, however, it is different, it requires a lot of time, appropriate knowledge and intuition to be successful. Not everyone can do it and many companies can even scare potential customers with their profiles. Below, I have collected the 5 biggest mistakes made by people marketing on Facebook. It is worth getting to know them in order to avoid them in the future.
1. Posting only sales-related posts
The social platform Facebook is a great place to show the human side of our brand. It is not an easy task, requiring a lot of feeling and an open mind, but efficiently planned and correctly performed activities can bring great benefits. Unfortunately, many people who conduct marketing activities on Facebook only provide sales posts.There is nothing wrong with informing your fans about various promotions, discounts, new products or encouraging shopping. However, when the recipient on the fanpage only finds sales posts, it does not bode well. Facebook was created as a platform for establishing relationships with other users. And it is the relationship that we should establish, and not only inform about the products. In return, we can offer the recipient educational or entertainment content. Then the profile will not be seen only as a shop window, but rather a place where you can spend more time finding useful content. It is worth considering when planning corporate marketing on Facebook.
2. Irregular posting
Facebook algorithms are built to promote profiles that regularly share content. In line with the ‘do not forget about yourself’ principle, posts on the company profile should appear regularly so that potential customers would constantly encounter our posts. Observing many profiles run by Polish companies (especially from the SME segment), the regularity of adding posts is the biggest problem. Regularly adding posts not only has a positive effect on the reach, but above all on the company’s credibility. Imagineyourself that you are entering some fanpage, and the last post appeared there a year ago. If Fanpage is not teeming with life, and in fact is not active, is the company still operating? When planning marketing activities on Facebook, it is worth planning in advance what posts and with what regularity will appear on the profile. It’s a good idea to schedule your posts for the entire month in advance. On the one hand you will save time and on the other hand you will avoid the problem of a dead profile.
3.No interaction with users
Facebook is the perfect place to interact with your users. Virtual place shortens the distance and encourages many people to make contact. It is a big mistake to ignore users, do not reply to messages or ignore comments, we are doing ourselves a lot. When planning the time devoted to marketing activities on Facebook, it is worth generating a bit of a two-way communication with the recipient. It is good practice to create engaging posts or invite clients to participate in contests. A customer who likes us will be happy to come back.
4. Lack of basic or outdated information about the company
A Facebook profile replaces its own website for many companies. So it should be equipped with all the necessary information, unfortunately many companies forget about it. It is a very big mistake when a company has not created a description of its own business and shares out-of-date information. Invalid company number? Wrong opening hours? These are the basic mistakes in running a Facebook fan page. Unfortunately, they usually result from a lack of commitment to running it. Facebook marketing activities should start with filling in the most important data.
5. No strategy
The basis of all activities on Facebook should be a properly created marketing strategy. For larger companies, it should be part of a larger strategy with more channels. Not having a strategy means acting blindly. Random actions can mean random results, or worse, no results. A good Facebook marketing strategy should clearly define your target audience, type of post, keynote, and types of promotion. A well-built one can serve as the bible of all activities on the portal.