Facebook Marketing _

Is Facebook marketing right for your business? Or is it too much effort and too hard and a drain on your time and energy?

These are important questions for any business owner. How and where do you find new customers for your goods and services, that's affordable, achievable and works?

When you're in business you have to work IN the business - and you have to work ON the business. When you're working IN your business it's easy to keep doing what you've always done. You take orders, answer the phone, make sales, pack goods... and the same tomorrow. Maybe you do some online advertising, or print advertising locally, perhaps you're in a few journals or directories. But by continuing to do these things you're working IN the business.

Work ON Your Business, Not IN It

It's important to take a little time out to work ON your business - take a look at what you're doing and see if you can do things better, differently. Spot opportunities you might be missing. Try out new things, drop things that aren't working.

It's only by continually improving and tweaking your business that it'll grow and you'll prosper. You can look at it as making more money now, or perhaps being able to see that you can retire earlier. That's your choice, but unless you work ON your business, you'll forever be working IN it and probably losing some of the joy you first felt when you set it up.

Facebook marketing is now used by thousands of small and large companies to promote their goods and services. Your customers and potential customers can come to your Facebook page and "like" you - which sends a flag up to their friends, who might then visit your Facebook page.

Facebook is Viral Marketing

This way of people telling their friends and family about your website is known as viral marketing... so if people DO like your Facebook page, then you could have a worldwide audience before you know it, without too much effort.

There is some effort of course, but a Facebook page can be the perfect way for small and large businesses to get the word out more easily than a lot of other methods. Combined with Twitter, you could, for example, quickly shift some old stock, or get a crowd of people turning up at your shop.

There are hundreds of different ways you can use Facebook for your marketing. But that doesn't mean you should. So you need to work out whether Facebook Marketing is right for you, right for your business, or not.

When you're in business, anything you do means that something else is left not done. You make choices. If you're marketing your business and just spent a whole afternoon designing a newspaper advert telling people there's 10% off this Saturday, then it would make sense to mention this on your Facebook page too - it takes just seconds and can quadruple the effect of your advertising.

With Facebook you can tease and entice, more easily. Facebook marketing is also zero cost, except a little bit of time. It can add a fun element into your marketing and promotion, you can let your enthusiasm for your products shine through; let people see your personality more easily. It's harder to set that 'tone' in a website, but Facebook works with your personality if you want to have a slightly more fun and welcoming tone.

But is Facebook marketing right for your business?

Maybe you're a company selling cardigans to people over 90 who live in care homes .... what's the relevance? You could reach their kids and grandkids through Facebook maybe and launch a Win Granny a Cardigan contest.. drawing traffic to your website, where people would be able to buy more than just a cardigan for their granny.

Facebook enables you to quickly and freely test new markets. Perhaps just by running one "Win Granny a Cardigan" contest you'll discover you tapped into a whole new outlet and audience for your products. No other marketing method could be used for such valuable and speedy market research.

Most businesses could benefit from doing some Facebook marketing - whether that's a small amount, or using it to launch new products or a new branding. Facebook marketing certainly has its place in advertising and promoting your business, but if you're not really sure just yet then it's easy to put it off until another day to look into it.

Maybe you're not too keen on Facebook, or maybe you feel a bit 'left out' or just don't understand how Facebook can work to your advantage.

Put your feelings aside, if you're not a Facebook fan - because other people LOVE Facebook and so you need to at least check out the potential it has for promoting your business.

You might not like, or ever use, public transport - but if they offered you a free advert for your business you'd snap it up.

You might despise one of your national newspapers, but if they called you right now and offered you a full page advert for the price of a coffee you'd be sending them the artwork before you could blink!

See Facebook as a business opportunity. Your opportunity to get more business exposure, quite easily - for pretty much zero cost. When compared to other forms of advertising it's a no brainer!

Of course, this is just one example, but Facebook marketing enables the smaller businesses to compete with the bigger guys. It frees you up to be able to think outside the box, to get instant feedback and "likes" for new products.

Facebook enables you to put a "face" to your business as people will feel they know you, which is something you simply don't get with a website and traditional print advertising.

Facebook marketing? It's worth a look.

Facebook Like Image, by Wikimedia Commons.