Tidbit: Are You Using Facebook for Marketing Effectively?

Facebook connects you with customers on a more personal level. Your fans choose to follow you and want to receive news about your services and products. So, are you making the most of this unique opportunity to go beyond advertising to reach your customers? If you want to use Facebook for marketing effectively, follow these tips:

• Share videos. According to comScore's November 2013 Online Video Rankings, 189.2 million Americans streamed 47.1 billion online videos on their devices in November alone. Facebook users accounted for almost 3 percent of those watched videos. Your customers like to watch videos. Show short clips about what you do, or introduce members of your team. The videos should be fun but informative.
•  Ask questions. Keep your questions simple, and make it an actual conversation by responding to customers' answers. This lets your customers know that you, as a company, do care about what they think and are willing to listen to them. You can even ask fun questions just to start a conversation. Just remember to review what you've written before you hit Submit.
• Let them send you stuff. Do your customers love your company? Let them submit their own photos and artwork about your products or services. Make sure to give props to the customer for their submission. You'll have new content on your page and testimonials from real customers.
• Post sparingly. Due to the way in which Facebook sorts posts, it's best to limit your posts to the frequency by which your customers are most likely to be online. For example, you could post an average of two times a day between 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. when people are likely to check their accounts during their breaks at work. Limiting your posts helps to increase your chances of your posts being active on their feeds, instead of shuffled further down the timeline.

If you leverage the power of Facebook marketing effectively, you'll be able to connect with your customers, provide excellent customer service, and understand your customers' needs and wants (and ultimately, how you meet those needs).