So you had a great idea…
Or maybe a ‘social media ninja’ told you to do it…
Or maybe you saw some other friend do it and you thought, “Why not? It’s free advertising.”
If others are doing it, it must work (even if you’ve found it to be annoying, too).
So you create a few photos that promote your latest service or product, upload it to Facebook, and you start tagging the hell out of your friends. Then, you copy and paste the same message onto your friend’s walls telling them to come check out your website, blog post, YouTube channel, whatever.
Sheesh! That was a lot of work. But it was free. And you spent an hour or two at it. So, you pat yourself on the back and exclaim that you’re a marketing genius!
And then… you’re left scratching your head.
Why are your friends ignoring you? Why did your Facebook marketing strategy fail miserably?
It’s pretty simple.
If you were at a business networker, would you go around posting sticky notes on people’s back to advertise your business? Um… not unless you want to be the most hated person in the room. So why would you do that online?
STOP IT! You’re pissing people off and you’re ruining your business reputation.
You’re forcing your friends to market for you. You’re also forcing them to resent you, avoid you, and possibly delete you.
Here’s what you need to do instead…
3 Ways To Promote Your Business on Facebook
- Advertise. Look, if you’re going to advertise your products, at least hit up the people that are most likely going to buy from you. Select your market demographics and create a Facebook advertising campaign. It may not be free, but you can control your budget and focus your message.
- Promote. We all know that Facebook business pages are not reaching your fans like they once did. But, you also need to remember that just because you have 100, 1,000, or 100,000 fans doesn’t mean that they will be online all at the same time or when you decide to publish your post. Promoting your posts helps push them up the feed at various times to get in front of your audience. Facebook is rolling this feature out and if you haven’t used it yet, you may still be able to get a $5 or $10 credit to try it out.
- Ask. If your budget is tight and you don’t want to pay to play, ask your friends for help. That means: send a private message, email, or pick up the phone and ask them in person. Most people enjoy helping their friends when asked. Give them the opportunity to understand why you need their help, what you are doing , and determine if it’s a good fit for their audience. Make it as easy as possible for them to share by creating pre-made messages that they can easily copy and paste into their status updates.
Keep the conversation flowing… Do you get annoyed by well-meaning friends that tag you in their promotional wall posts? What do you do to make them stop?
@brandspiration
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BRAVO! (just stop it, it is not "marketing")
Thanks!
Tagged in promotional posts, invited to corporate events in other states, asking to favorite a page on my brand page that has nothing to do with our business…. I am all for helping friends! I would just prefer to be asked first, and yes. Just like you said, ask me privately.
Yes! The mass location-based event invitations and also the group additions (without consent) are another spamming method that drives me up a wall. Thanks, Carrie!
I think you just said what all of us were thinking…KUDOS!
Now Im trying to remember how often ive done that.
I actually hit this earlier this month in one of my naughty or nice posts. Thanks for putting it into blog format. Very shareable across all platforms.
Thanks, Mallie. I haven't seen your naught or nice posts but I absolutely love that idea! Do you have a link(s) you can share?
Once again you nail it Kimberly. What you have outlined above is a reputation killer and in this day and age of social media and social sharing a move like this will do more damage then one would think. Often I think people do this innocently, as you have suggested, so pointing out why it is not a good move is worth it's weight in gold. Rock on Kimberly!
When creating a Facebook advertising campaign, make sure that you create a target audience. Having a target audience makes it easier for you to create your advertising content.
One of the best ways to protect yourself from this on Facebook is to review posts that you're tagged in by your "friends" before they appear on your timeline.
To do this go to the Gear icon at the top, then click on Privacy Settings, choose Timeline and Tagging, under the section "Who can add things to my timeline?" and "Review posts friends tag you in before they appear on your timeline?" choose Edit then Enabled.
When a friend tags you in a post you will receive a notification to review the post. You can then choose to approve or deny the request. Works wonders.