Your business, and your brand, are critically important to you, I realize this. Making the most of every opportunity is a way for you to propel your business forward to more growth, more influence, and more profitability. But what opportunities should you actually pursue? How do you know what opportunities can actually give you the best return on your effort for growing your business and your brand?
I can’t say I know the answer to that question in full for your exact business. Every business is different, every market is uniquely dynamic. I can say though, regardless of what your business is, or what brand you are striving to build, Facebook can be a game changer in so many way. Facebook can because the one tool that allows you to build a massive audience of people who recognize your brand, understand your business, and see the work and expertise that you possess – regardless of what field of work you are in.
I have a friend who does home repair and small scale construction. It’s only him and his partner, and they work hard giving out quotes on new jobs with the hopes that just a few of those clients will actually hire them.
They built a Facebook Fan Page a few months ago and started sharing news, updates from their industry, and images of their projects. And my friend tells me now that traffic and interaction on their Facebook Page has more than doubled.
Has all they work and effort paid off yet for my friend? Maybe in some cases, sure. But by no means does the growth my friend’s page is experiencing mean every single new interaction is going to result in a new sale.
But what my friend is doing – what he’s at the very forefront of building – is the brand and influence of his business.
On Facebook, you have the opportunity to keep reminded a growing audience people about your business. Each update, each new picture, each new interaction, is a reflection on your business and your brand. And the more you interact and update your Facebook fan page, the more brand recognition you are building.
It’s like having a TV commercial for your business where you get to control the frequency of the play times to your target audience.
You have to interact with your fans. If you are doing the hard work of updating your Facebook Fan Page everyday with news and information that’s valuable to your audience, you have to take a little bit extra time to interact with your audience.
When someone replies to your update, or comments on an image, or asks a question, responding to that person will make a huge impact on that person. And when that person feels like you actually care about him or her, and they see you are taking the time to interact with them, they will be more apt to interact again.
This process allows you to continue to build your influence with this one individual, but the ripple effect is equally value.
The more someone – or a group of people – interacts with you on Facebook, the deeper your exposure can be throughout Facebook. When someone interacts with your Facebook page, that interact typically shows up on their friend’s wall stating that you interacted with that Facebook page.
That wall update is a direct link back to your Facebook page, and it’s on someone’s wall that you probably don’t even know. And I’m sure you can see the cycle of exposure I’m getting at here.
The more you interact with your fans on Facebook, and more active you are updating your page, the more exposure you’ll get to more people, allowing your brand to continually grow and spread to more people.
Being consistent, day after day, with this process will eventually lead you to a tipping point where you see your hard work pay off.
What about you?
What are some ways you’ve grown your Facebook page’s audience and influence?